employee

See also: employée

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From employ +‎ -ee.[1][2] First attested in the early 19th century, possibly modeled after French employé.[1][3]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌɛmplɔɪˈiː/, /ˌɛmˈplɔɪiː/, /ɪm-/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Hyphenation: em‧ploy‧ee
  • Rhymes: -iː

Noun

employee (plural employees)

  1. A person who provides labor to a company or another person.
    Synonyms: member of staff; associate (sometimes euphemistically synonymous)
    Hypernym: worker
    Holonyms: business, company
    Coordinate terms: employer; (in some contexts hyponymous) boss, manager
    One way to encourage your employees to work harder is by giving them incentives.
    • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Hocussing of Cigarette”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
      No one, however, would have anything to do with him, as Mr. Keeson's orders in those respects were very strict ; he had often threatened any one of his employés with instant dismissal if he found him in company with one of these touts.
    • 2011 November 9, Susanne Gargiulo, “Emotional intelligence in the workplace”, in CNN‎[1]:
      The concepts of emotional intelligence (EI), self-worth, authenticity and employee meditation rooms might conjure up thoughts of new age healing centers. […] Now, Nielsen is sending all hotel employees through EI training to help them become more open and confident, understand their own limitations and fears, and to boost their self-worth and comfort in dealing with other people.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “employee”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “employee”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  3. ^ “employee, n.1”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
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