Showing results for "employed"

• past tense form of employ.
• past participle of employ.

employed

American  

[em-ploid] / ɛmˈplɔɪd /

adjective

1. given employment, or paid work; hired, especially permanently by inclusion on a payroll.

   The comedy revolves around a beauty salon owner and her newly employed male stylist.

2. applied or used; made use of.

   In the study, drilling with flashcards was the least frequently employed strategy for language learning.

3. kept busy or engaged with some work or activity.

   I never feel usefully employed in science except when I'm actually gathering data.

4. (of time, energies, etc.) occupied; devoted to some pursuit.

   Working on my quilt gave me many happily employed hours.

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verb

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

Other Word Forms

• de-employed
  adjective
• well-employed
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of employed

First recorded in 1560–70; employ ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; employ ( def. ) + -ed ¹ ( def. ) for the verb sense

Explanation

Someone who's employed has a job or is busy with something. Some people believe that employed teenagers get themselves in less trouble than those without jobs. If you're working, you're employed. Most employed people work traditional full-time jobs, although an increasing number of them are freelancers or have part-time positions. Another way to use this adjective is to mean "used," as when you say, "The employed methods for keeping the classroom calm seem a little extreme to me." The adjective employed comes from the related verb, employ, "use, apply, occupy, or hire."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

employed

Bass said she always has been a proponent of approaches that don’t involve police, some of which are employed by her Office of Community Safety.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 24, 2026

In July, Russia employed a different AI-enabled drone in combat that demonstrated a less comprehensive form of autonomous targeting.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026

Samantha Lyle has been employed by the city's health and social care partnership as a social care worker for five years.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

At least one of those facilities employed North Korean women, according to South Korean officials who viewed videos from the site.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

As superintendent of the Union Stock Yards, Sherman ruled an empire of blood that employed 25,000 men, women, and children and each year slaughtered fourteen million animals.

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Related Words

• engaged
• hired
• occupied