occupation

American  

[ok-yuh-pay-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

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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

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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

His occupation was listed as an “Educator/Rabbi,” according to jail records.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026

Maxime Novikov, a 43-year-old historian on the tour, said he was "pleasantly surprised that part of the new museum is dedicated to Russian territories that were under Nazi occupation."

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

After Germany invaded in May 1940, Hepburn spent much of her teenage years under Nazi occupation.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

The German Empire emerged as a hegemon, nominally recognizing the independence of Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine while keeping them under military occupation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

She wanted to tell the old woman to let her be, to go off and hunt, her favorite occupation.

From "The Birchbark House" by Louise Erdrich

According to Jung, about 11% of UK jobs are "highly exposed" to being replaced by AI chatbots, "led by secretarial and administrative occupations".

From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026

In a recent study, my colleagues and I compared the occupations most exposed to AI—software developers, financial clerks, administrative assistants—with those least exposed.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

If working-class voters are those working low-wage jobs, then they are already majority women, who occupy two-thirds of the 40 lowest-paid occupations.

From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026

The occupations most exposed to AI’s reach shrank by 0.2% year over year in June, according to research from ADP and Stanford University.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026

We were marched—all but Pickwick, who seemed unable to rise out of his seat—into a large room where the endless process of taking down names, addresses, and occupations began all over again.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

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