employee

American  

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

Rarely employe,

noun

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

• preemployee noun
• proemployee adjective

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

The company I work for offers a pretty generous employee stock-purchase plan — we can buy stock at a 15% discount.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 20, 2026

It might sound like a dream scenario for companies, who stand to profit from the enhanced output of an employee with a digital twin.

From BBC • Apr. 16, 2026

Meanwhile, Wall Street continued its trend of cheering news of large layoffs in the technology sector, which investors see as a sign of companies embracing AI to boost employee productivity.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 15, 2026

District officials have previously described such cost-cutting attempts as potentially meaningful, but only marginally helpful given that employee salaries and benefits make up the vast majority of the district’s nearly $19-billion budget.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026

A girl sat on the piercing stool while an employee steadied the gun.

From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly

Related Words

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