vocational
Americanadjective
-
of, relating to, or connected with a vocation or occupation.
a vocational aptitude.
-
of, relating to, or noting instruction or guidance in an occupation or profession chosen as a career or in the choice of a career.
a vocational counselor.
adjective
-
of or relating to a vocation or vocations
-
of or relating to applied educational courses concerned with skills needed for an occupation, trade, or profession
vocational training
Other Word Forms
- nonvocational adjective
- nonvocationally adverb
- quasi-vocational adjective
- quasi-vocationally adverb
- vocationally adverb
Etymology
Origin of vocational
Explanation
If you're learning a skill that could lead to a specific job, like how to repair cars or how to be a chef, you're getting vocational training. Vocational means "related to a career." A vocation is a job or career, so something vocational is related to a specific kind of work. There are vocational schools that train people for jobs, which might be what you think of when you read the word vocational, though it could describe anything related to working. Vocational comes from the Latin word vocationem, or "a calling." It originally meant a spiritual calling, but grew to include employment in the 16th century.
Vocabulary lists containing vocational
President Trump's First State of The Union Address (2018)
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Revolution in Our Time
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Promises to Keep
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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 route was mostly straightforward: enrol in a two-or three-year vocational course, find a job after graduation and, within a few years, apply for permanent residency.
From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026
At a vocational institute north of the capital Beirut, displaced mother Nasima Ismail signed up her children for services despite a lack of resources as the war interrupts education for hundreds of thousands of students.
From Barron's • Mar. 29, 2026
Nihill was shoved into a vocational program and most of his friends dropped out of school.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 13, 2026
In the regional capital Joensuu, vocational school principal Esa Karvinen had more than 2,000 applications from Russia in 2022.
From Barron's • Feb. 25, 2026
She suggested he apply to Job Corps, a U.S. government program that provides vocational training to people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four and that offers the chance to earn a high school degree.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
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.
