employee
Americannoun
noun
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
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
Vocabulary lists containing employee
"Dogs at Work"
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Vocabulary for the Naturalization Interview
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Units 6–7
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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.
A spokesperson for Superdry previously told BBC News that Holder resigned as a director and employee of the company in 2016, and consultancy work with the firm ended in 2019.
From BBC • Jul. 1, 2026
A frenzied push for artificial intelligence dominance comes with a different kind of cost for Meta, where massive layoffs, employee surveillance and departures have fueled reports of a heated internal climate.
From Barron's • Jul. 1, 2026
Luis Espinola, a 61-year-old hotel employee, put it this way: "With Paraguay you have to suffer until the last minute."
From Barron's • Jun. 30, 2026
An industry group, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, recommended that new rules give firms “qualified immunity” against employee challenges to how their departures are described on their employment record.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 30, 2026
You wonder if she’s the legendary Sandy June or just an employee with coincidental initials.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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.
