employ
Americanverb (used with object)
-
employs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
employed,
past participle, past
-
employing
present participle
-
to hire or engage the services of (a person or persons); provide employment for; have or keep in one's service.
This factory employs thousands of people.
-
to make use of (an instrument, means, etc.); use; apply.
We employ objective and scientific methods to analyze all management areas.
-
to keep busy or at work; engage the attentions of.
He employs himself by reading after work.
-
to occupy or devote (time, energies, etc.).
I employ my spare time in reading. I employ all my energies in writing.
noun
-
employs
plural
verb
-
to engage or make use of the services of (a person) in return for money; hire
-
to provide work or occupation for; keep busy; occupy
collecting stamps employs a lot of his time
-
to use as a means
to employ secret measures to get one's ends
noun
Usage
What does employ mean? To employ someone is to pay them to work. An employer employs employees. The state of being employed is employment. A more specific use of employ is as a noun meaning employment or service. This sense of the word is almost always used in phrases like in their employ. Employ also means to use, as in This task will require you to employ a different skill set. Less commonly, employ can mean to keep one busy or occupy one, as in During flights I usually employ myself with some knitting. Example: My company employs more than 500 people.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
employabilitynoun
-
overemployverb (used with object)
-
preemployverb (used with object)
-
reemployverb (used with object)
-
employableadjective
-
nonemployingadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
employsimple
-
employssimple
-
have employedperfect
-
has employedperfect
-
am employingprogressive
-
are employingprogressive
-
is employingprogressive
-
have been employingperfect progressive
-
has been employingperfect progressive
Past
-
employedsimple
-
had employedperfect
-
was employingprogressive
-
were employingprogressive
-
had been employingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of employ
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English employen, from Anglo-French, Middle French emploier, ultimately derived from Latin implicāre “to enfold” ( Late Latin: “to engage”); see implicate
Explanation
To employ means to use something or hire someone to work. You can employ a saw to cut a board or employ a tutor to teach you math. You can even employ your talents in study and activities. The Latin source of employ is the word implicāre, which literally means to enfold or be connected with. This ties in with the verb employ, which is transitive and needs a direct object. (You can't just say "I will employ — you have to employ something.) The word also suggests using something for a specific purpose: you can employ someone for a job or find something in which to employ your own interests.
Vocabulary lists containing employ
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 1–6
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Iowa mill will employ about 1,700 when completed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
"On staff wages alone, we employ about 200 staff, including around 120 actors."
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Some would require companies to disclose more about how their systems work and what safeguards they employ.
From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026
Assembly Bill 2222 would create refundable tax credits for California local news organizations based on the number of journalists they employ.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
There is another way to measure the distance to the stars which the Ionians were fully capable of discovering, although, so far as we know, they did not employ it.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
"Over a typical three-to-five-year construction period, an average Google data centre development employs about 4,200 construction workers annually."
From Barron's ● Oct. 11, 2026
The cyber-attack caused JLR, which employs 43,000 people globally, to shut down production for more than a month.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
The site employs local contractors and businesses and pays royalties to over 3,000 people who own mineral rights, he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Some AI safety researchers had previously expressed their concern that an earlier version of the model employs new methods of reasoning that might not be traceable using current tools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
It is unsophisticated, employs no big forms and no big architectural structures, and it uses small sequence forms, ostinato and rondo.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Reports that a woman employed at a plague research institute in Russia's Irkutsk region died from the disease has spiked online interest in possible treatments for the illness in North America.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
Tomé took office in the early days of the pandemic, and employed armies of “essential workers” who could not leave their jobs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
Excluding traditional satellite television broadcasting, it employed 2,811 people, an increase of 81% over the same period.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
The overacting is exhausting because it’s not only Iñárritu’s creative choice, but rather the methods employed by the play-within-a-movie’s director.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
By then Lippmann was no longer speaking to Howie Hubler, because Howie Hubler was no longer employed at Morgan Stanley.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
But, as Roundhill CEO Dave Mazza pointed out, most of these products have catered to day traders, by employing leverage that resets daily.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 10, 2026
It did not name the state agency employing the accused high-ranking law enforcement officer because doing so could lead to identities being revealed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
The company employing Anojan notified the authorities in Saudi Arabia who registered a case against him, according to Hamsidan.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
Ford Motor’s assembly plant in Hermosillo, Mexico churns out over 300,000 pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles a year, employing 4,300 workers and a security guard known as “El Charro,” the WSJ’s Ryan Felton reports.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Colin began by employing a strategy he'd just invented called the “windmill,” which involved windmilling his arms around to keep his attacker at bay.
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
