employee

American  

[em-ploi-ee, em-ploi-ee] / ɛmˈplɔɪ i, ˌɛm plɔɪˈi /

Rarely employe,

noun

employees plural

1. a person working for another person or a business firm for pay.

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employee British  

/ ˌɛmplɔɪˈiː, ɛmˈplɔɪiː /

noun

1. Also called (esp formerly): employé.  a person who is hired to work for another or for a business, firm, etc, in return for payment

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Usage

What does employee mean? An employee is someone who gets paid to work for a person or company. Workers don’t need to work full time to be considered employees—they simply need to be paid to work by an employer (the person or business that pays them). The term employee is sometimes used to distinguish contract workers from full employees (who often earn additional benefits), but in this example, both types of workers are considered employees in the general sense. Example: My company has more than 500 employees.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preemployee
  noun
• proemployee
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• employees
  plural

Etymology

Origin of employee

First recorded in 1825–35; from French employé “employed,” past participle of employer to employ; see -ee

Explanation

An employee is someone who's hired to do a particular job for pay. If you like to shop in a certain store, you might also enjoy being an employee there. You can see the verb employ, meaning "put to use," in employee. You can employ a pen in writing a letter, just as a grocery store might employ workers to collect the shopping carts from the parking lot. A person who is put to work is an employee. Employee implies that the worker reports to a boss, and it's most commonly used for non-executives who work for a salary.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

employee employees

Lucy Kemp, a strategic brand and communications leader at the IT company La Fosse and an employee experience specialist, agrees.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

The news about the Redlands employee, first reported by the San Bernardino Sun, came to light last month following the state controller’s scheduled publication of city-level compensation data.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026

The report cited the example of a scam where an employee at a Hong Kong-based firm transferred £25m to fraudsters after a video call with a deepfake recreation of their boss.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

More: A junior employee saved this company six figures using AI.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026

Lord Fredrick gazed up at his new employee, a half head taller than himself.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

In a statement to The Times, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California confirmed that the man was not one of their employees at the plant.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2026

However, the 3,000-layoff total also includes about 500 Verizon corporate employees, people familiar with the matter said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026

The government employees protecting the court deserve to be paid fairly, and the threats against the justices and their families are real.

From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026

“It’s natural for employees to have pride where they work, but emotional investing is a risky retirement strategy,” Prince said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026

Robert Kennedy, then running for President, telegraphed: “By your actions in support of employees who seek recognition for their bargaining rights, you set a standard that all should emulate.”

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

Related Words

• agent
• attendant
• clerk
• laborer
• member
• operator
• representative
• staff member
• worker