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

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Etymology

Origin of employee

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

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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

It also found employee discipline records, a worker’s criminal-history report, contractor payroll data, tax forms and passports.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026

“There is no production target, financial result or business objective that is more important than ensuring every employee and contractor returns home safely every day,” Oplinger says.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Four men — including a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employee — were responsible for more than $170,000 in damage to downtown buildings during a yearlong graffiti spree, prosecutors alleged Thursday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026

OpenAI employee Abdulrahman Alfozan was charged with trying to record audio using a device planted in a company conference room.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

The oscillating fan on the wall made the papers on the employee bulletin board flutter.

From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia

Prices recently dipped to near all-time lows, a gut punch for the many employees who get much of their pay in shares.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

Some current and former employees now say the firm relied too much on wealthy individuals for growth and has struggled to respond to the private-credit backlash effectively.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

Empowering employees doesn’t mean handing over projects or assignments and letting them figure it all out on their own.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Congress approved a constitutional amendment Wednesday abolishing Brazil's six-day working week, a flagship Lula campaign promise that will give employees two paid days off without cutting their wages.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

The only people who knew— besides our little family—were the other employees at Big Ed’s…and Andre’s sixty-seven followers.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

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Related Words

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

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