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

A partner at Hall Benefits Law, Krause specializes in the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act, executive compensation, employee benefits, fiduciary and tax matters.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026

Read more: Employee buyouts like Microsoft’s could become more common.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 27, 2026

Employee sentiment at Meta is at its most negative level on record, with 80% of posts on Blind being negative this year.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

A new appeal has been filed with the California Public Employee Relations Board, noting Vandepas was also protected as a union steward and was in part punished for raising internal workload issues.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2026

Then the system asked me if I wanted more information on the Indentured Employee Entertainment Reward Program.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Related Words

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