Showing results for "occupied"

• past tense form of occupy.
• past participle of occupy.

occupied

American  

[ok-yuh-pahyd] / ˈɒk jəˌpaɪd /

adjective

1. lived in.

   Now that he is no longer a member of the legislature, he and his family must move out of the occupied premises within 30 days.

2. (of space, time, etc.) taken or filled up.

   Have you ever walked into a public restroom and mistakenly opened an occupied stall?

3. taken possession of and controlled by a hostile military force.

   After Germany invaded in 1914, the Belgian Commission for Relief ensured that Belgians living in the occupied region did not starve.

4. employed or engaged, as one’s attention, energy, etc.; busy.

   He is often bored at home, not receiving much attention or affection from his occupied parents.

5. (of a position, office, etc.) held.

   The amount of the salary markup for working under extraordinary conditions depends on the occupied position.

6. Sometimes Occupied (of a place) taken possession of and controlled by demonstrators who see it as symbolic of a social or political issue.

   People stopped outside the occupied library to show their support for those inside, who were protesting cuts to public services.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of occupy.

Other Word Forms

• overoccupied
  adjective
• self-occupied
  adjective
• underoccupied
  adjective
• well-occupied
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of occupied

occupy ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

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Explanation

Something that's occupied is being used or is unavailable. If the sign on the restroom door says occupied, it means there's someone in there and you're just going to have to wait. If every seat on the subway is occupied, you'll have to stand, and if the apartment you were hoping to rent is occupied, you'll have to start your search all over again. When you're busy with work, you're occupied — you're engaged, or distracted by it. And when a country is occupied, it's been invaded and taken over by a foreign power — this last meaning was first used during World War II, referring to German-occupied France.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

occupied

Hundreds of tents have occupied Madrid's central Puerta del Sol square since she was taken away on a stretcher last month after the real estate company that owned her flat drastically hiked the rent.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

He proved his worth and after officer training in Tel Aviv he was sent to Glasgow to join the Cichociemni, a Polish special forces unit trained for occupied Poland.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

This research and satellite imagery suggested that - between 2011 and 2025 - the number of occupied chinstrap penguin nests declined by 63%.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

Trees occupied by wasps also consistently had much smaller ant colonies.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

Even the clumsy, unattractive, and bad-tasting dodos have occupied people’s thoughts far more in extinction than they ever did when they were alive.

From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood

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Related Words

• engaged
• peopled
• populated
• settled

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