OCCUPATION

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does occupation mean? 

• OCCUPATION (noun)
  The noun OCCUPATION has 5 senses:

1. the principal activity in your life that you do to earn money

2. the control of a country by military forces of a foreign power

3. any activity that occupies a person's attention

4. the act of occupying or taking possession of a building

5. the period of time during which a place or position or nation is occupied

  Familiarity information: OCCUPATION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OCCUPATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The principal activity in your life that you do to earn money

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

business; job; line; line of work; occupation

Context example:

he's not in my line of business

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

activity (any specific behavior)

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

confectionery (the occupation and skills of a confectioner)

sport (the occupation of athletes who compete for pay)

farming; land (agriculture considered as an occupation or way of life)

biz; game (your occupation or line of work)

calling; career; vocation (the particular occupation for which you are trained)

employment; work (the occupation for which you are paid)

appointment (the job to which you are (or hope to be) appointed)

berth; billet; office; place; position; post; situation; spot (a job in an organization)

salt mine; treadmill (a job involving drudgery and confinement)

craft; trade (the skilled practice of a practical occupation)

profession (an occupation requiring special education (especially in the liberal arts or sciences))

medium; metier (an occupation for which you are especially well suited)

accountancy; accounting (the occupation of maintaining and auditing records and preparing financial reports for a business)

photography (the occupation of taking and printing photographs or making movies)

catering (providing food and services)

Derivation:

occupy (consume all of one's attention or time)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The control of a country by military forces of a foreign power

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

military control; occupation

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

social control (control exerted (actively or passively) by group action)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Derivation:

occupy (march aggressively into another's territory by military force for the purposes of conquest and occupation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any activity that occupies a person's attention

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

he missed the bell in his occupation with the computer game

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

activity (any specific behavior)

Derivation:

occupy (consume all of one's attention or time)

occupy (keep busy with)

occupy (be on the mind of)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of occupying or taking possession of a building

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

moving in; occupancy; occupation

Context example:

occupation of a building without a certificate of occupancy is illegal

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

acquiring; getting (the act of acquiring something)

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

preoccupancy; preoccupation (the act of taking occupancy before someone else does)

Derivation:

occupy (live (in a certain place))

Sense 5

Meaning:

The period of time during which a place or position or nation is occupied

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

during the German occupation of Paris

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

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Derivation:

occupy (require (time or space))

occupy (occupy the whole of)

 Context examples 

Occupations of medical personnel who are not physicians, and are qualified by special training and, frequently, by licensure to work in supporting roles in the health care field.

(Allied Health Sciences, NCI Thesaurus)

This man’s occupation is gone.

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

The oldest and largest organization of public health professionals in the world, representing more than 50,000 members from more than 50 occupations of public health.

(American Public Health Association, NCI Thesaurus)

Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) Current occupation.

(BPI - Current Occupation, NCI Thesaurus)

The state of being engaged in an activity or service for wages or salary; the occupation for which you are paid.

(Employment, NCI Thesaurus)

Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) Spouse's occupation.

(BPI - Spouse's Occupation, NCI Thesaurus)

He had no occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon Street every night.

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

After a time it became his occupation.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I was so fully aware that only serious moods and occupations were acceptable, that in his presence every effort to sustain or follow any other became vain: I fell under a freezing spell.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I had abundant occupation for my thoughts, in every conspicuous landmark on the road.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)