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
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"
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Vocabulary for the Naturalization Interview
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Units 6–7
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
The Apple employee pointed his camera at a bookshelf: “I loved ‘Hyperion.’
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 9, 2026
Phil, the dorky and faintly sinister middle-aged employee of Async, explains to Mary that his company used to make MRI machines.
From Salon • Jun. 8, 2026
One ranking component analyzed LinkedIn profiles to gauge employee retention among those workers, while another considered how open companies are to work-from-home arrangements widely favored by Gen Zers.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
The human resources employee in her 50s found the pontiff "extraordinary" during Saturday's prayer vigil with 500,000 mostly young people, seeing a "very positive message of joy".
From Barron's • Jun. 7, 2026
Downstairs they exited the building into a small employee parking lot and headed straight for a sports car that looked like it belonged in a James Bond movie.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
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.
