employed
Americanadjective
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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.
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applied or used; made use of.
In the study, drilling with flashcards was the least frequently employed strategy for language learning.
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kept busy or engaged with some work or activity.
I never feel usefully employed in science except when I'm actually gathering data.
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(of time, energies, etc.) occupied; devoted to some pursuit.
Working on my quilt gave me many happily employed hours.
verb
Other Word Forms
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Canada’s employment rate, the number of employed people as a percentage of the population aged 15 years and older, slipped to 60.6% from 60.8% in August.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
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
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
He also employed superb artists to prepare large diagrams used in his teaching.
From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin
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.
