occupation

American  

[ok-yuh-pey-shuhn] / ˌɒk jəˈpeɪ ʃən /

noun

• occupations
  plural

1. a person's usual or principal work or business, especially as a means of earning a living; vocation.

   Her occupation was dentistry.

   Synonyms:

   métier, craft, pursuit, employment

2. any activity in which a person is engaged.

3. possession, settlement, or use of land or property.

   Synonyms:

   occupancy

4. the act of occupying, possessing, or settling.

5. the state of being occupied, taken over, or settled.

6. the state of being busy.

   His constant occupation with his writing has cut severely into his social life.

7. the seizure and control of an area by military forces, especially foreign territory.

8. the term of control of a territory by foreign military forces.

   Danish resistance during the German occupation.

9. tenure or the holding of an office or official function.

   during his occupation of the vice presidency.

10. the act of going into and taking control of a public or private space, as a park or building, especially as an act of protest.

    The students' week-long occupation of the dean's office brought about a change in the university's curfew policy.

11. the state or condition of living or working in a given place.

    The landlord will not allow occupation of any of his apartments by families with children or pets.

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occupation British  

/ ˌɒkjʊˈpeɪʃən /

noun

1. a person's regular work or profession; job or principal activity

2. any activity on which time is spent by a person

3. the act of occupying or the state of being occupied

4. the control of a country by a foreign military power

5. the period of time that a nation, place, or position is occupied

6. (modifier) for the use of the occupier of a particular property

   occupation road

   occupation bridge

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Synonym Usage

Occupation, business, profession, trade refer to the activity to which one regularly devotes oneself, especially one's regular work, or means of getting a living. Occupation is the general word: a pleasant or congenial occupation. Business especially suggests a commercial or mercantile occupation: the printing business. Profession implies an occupation requiring special knowledge and training in some field of science or learning: the profession of teaching. Trade suggests an occupation involving manual training and skill: one of the building trades.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonoccupation
  noun
• reoccupation
  noun
• self-occupation
  noun
• occupationless
  adjective
• occupative
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• occupations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of occupation

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English occupacioun, from Middle French occupation, from Latin occupātiōn-, stem of occupātiō “employment, seizure,” from occupāt(us) “seized” (past participle of occupāre “to seize, take hold”; see occupy) + -iō -ion

Explanation

An occupation is a physical takeover. Your student group's occupation of the college building made news when your demands became known. In exchange for leaving, you wanted the college to grant a tuition freeze. The occupation of a building can refer to the rightful habitation by its residents or the takeover of a building, as in a protest. The occupation of a country, however, always refers to the takeover and control of one country by another, as in the German occupation of France during WWII. The noun occupation can also mean your line of work or anything that occupies your time. Some people have unusual occupations, such as alligator wrangler or golf ball retriever.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

occupation occupations

HMOs, or houses in multiple occupation, have been widely used by government contractors to house asylum seekers, often in lower income, urban areas.

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026

As civil resistance grew, ICE agents were eventually forced to change their approach from military occupation to a new phase that relied on covert tactics and the collaboration of local law enforcement.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

“People divorced from community, occupation, and association,” he wrote, “are first and foremost among the supporters of extremism.”

From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026

For management analysts, a useful proxy for consulting work, overall employment grew 12% from 2022 to early 2026, while solo self-employment within the occupation grew more than twice as fast.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

Unlike Scheveningen, which had been a regular Dutch prison, Vught had been constructed by the occupation especially as a concentration camp for political prisoners.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We have raised the skilled worker threshold and over 100 occupations are now ineligible for new skilled worker visas."

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

Within the U.S., they found that AI is being used across a large number of occupations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

Education experts said one possible response to such a scenario is for state legislatures that set licensing requirements to decide some occupations — like barbers and stylists — actually need less training.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

Then I used workers’ reported occupations to merge them onto Digital Planet’s new AI Exposure metric.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026

According to a study conducted by the DePaul University College of Law in 2000, of the then-ninety-eight occupations requiring licenses in Illinois, fifty-seven placed stipulations and/or restrictions on applicants with a criminal record.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

Related Words

• attack
• conquest
• invasion