EMPLOYMENT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does employment mean? 

• EMPLOYMENT (noun)
  The noun EMPLOYMENT has 4 senses:

1. the state of being employed or having a job

2. the occupation for which you are paid

3. the act of giving someone a job

4. the act of using

  Familiarity information: EMPLOYMENT used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EMPLOYMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being employed or having a job

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

employ; employment

Context example:

he was in the employ of the city

Hypernyms ("employment" is a kind of...):

state (the way something is with respect to its main attributes)

Antonym:

unemployment (the state of being unemployed or not having a job)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The occupation for which you are paid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

employment; work

Context example:

a lot of people are out of work

Hypernyms ("employment" is a kind of...):

business; job; line; line of work; occupation (the principal activity in your life that you do to earn money)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "employment"):

booking; engagement (employment for performers or performing groups that lasts for a limited period of time)

paper route (the job of delivering newspapers regularly)

public service (employment within a government system (especially in the civil service))

services (performance of duties or provision of space and equipment helpful to others)

telecommuting; teleworking (employment at home while communicating with the workplace by phone or fax or modem)

service (employment in or work for another)

piecework (work paid for according to the quantity produced)

work load; workload (work that a person is expected to do in a specified time)

navigation; sailing; seafaring (the work of a sailor)

ministry (the work of a minister of religion)

coaching; coaching job (the job of a professional coach)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of giving someone a job

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

employment; engagement

Hypernyms ("employment" is a kind of...):

action (something done (usually as opposed to something said))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "employment"):

shape-up (a way of hiring longshoremen by the day; applicants gather around a union boss who selects those to be hired)

call-back (the recall of an employee after a layoff)

booking; reservation (the act of reserving (a place or passage) or engaging the services of (a person or group))

Derivation:

employ (engage or hire for work)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of using

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

employment; exercise; usage; use; utilisation; utilization

Context example:

skilled in the utilization of computers

Hypernyms ("employment" is a kind of...):

activity (any specific behavior)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "employment"):

practice (the exercise of a profession)

play (utilization or exercise)

abuse; misuse (improper or excessive use)

development; exploitation (the act of making some area of land or water more profitable or productive or useful)

recycling (the act of processing used or abandoned materials for use in creating new products)

application; practical application (the act of bringing something to bear; using it for a particular purpose)

Derivation:

employ (put into service; make work or employ for a particular purpose or for its inherent or natural purpose)

 Context examples 

“And I shall be twenty times happier, sir,” said I, with a little—I hope innocent—flattery, “if my employment is to be on the Dictionary.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I must have employment and society.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Mitton had been in Lucas’s employment for three years.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They are both in the employment of Harris & Sons, Moving and Shipment Company, Orange Master's Yard, Soho.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And away went Meg to help 'that man' in his highly improper employment.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

You give it up very gleefully, said he; I don't quite understand your light-heartedness, because I cannot tell what employment you propose to yourself as a substitute for the one you are relinquishing.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

His lameness prevented him from taking much exercise; but a mind of usefulness and ingenuity seemed to furnish him with constant employment within.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The money is nothing, it is not an object, but employment is the thing.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrow.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

A class of professional or vocational positions of employment that involve architecture or engineering.

(Architecture and Engineering Occupations, NCI Thesaurus)