employee

noun

em·​ploy·​ee im-ˌplȯ(i)-ˈē How to pronounce employee (audio)
(ˌ)em-;
im-ˈplȯ(i)-ˌē How to pronounce employee (audio)
em-
variants or less commonly employe
Synonyms of employee
: one employed by another usually for wages or salary and in a position below the executive level

Synonyms of employee

Relevance
See All Synonyms & Antonyms in Thesaurus

Examples of employee in a Sentence

A good boss listens to his employees. The company has more than 2,000 employees worldwide.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The objective is to preserve access while reducing disruption and ensuring that information does not depend on a handful of employees who are most comfortable interrupting the boss. — Rodger Dean Duncan, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026 The merch was originally made for OpenAI employees to purchase on an internal site, but the team decided to make a small capsule collection available to the public. — T.m. Brown, CNN Money, 17 Aug. 2026 More than 1,700 union employees were locked out of the Colorado beef processing plant in May. — Christa Swanson, CBS News, 17 Aug. 2026 No longer the sole creator of content distributed through his channels, Wayne now oversees hundreds of employees who together produce roughly 1,200 pieces of content per month. — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 17 Aug. 2026 See All Example Sentences for employee

Word History

Etymology

employ entry 1 + -ee entry 1, perhaps after French employé

First Known Use

1822, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of employee was in 1822

Browse Nearby Words

employable
employee
employer
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Employee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/employee. Accessed 19 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

Kids Definition

employee

noun
em·​ploy·​ee im-ˌplȯi-ˈē How to pronounce employee (audio) (ˌ)em- How to pronounce employee (audio)
im-ˈplȯi-ˌē, 
em-
: one who works for another for wages or a salary

Legal Definition

employee

noun
em·​ploy·​ee
variants also employe
: a person usually below the executive level who is hired by another to perform a service especially for wages or salary and is under the other's control see also respondeat superior compare independent contractor

Note: In determining whether an individual is an employee, courts look at several factors, including the nature of the compensation paid, provision for employee benefits, whether the hired party is in business, tax treatment of the hired party, source of the equipment used, and location of the work. Statutes, such as workers' compensation acts and labor laws, usually include a definition of employee as it is used in the statute.

More from Merriam-Webster on employee

Nglish: Translation of employee for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of balmy

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Do you 'say your piece' or 'say your peace'?

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

Is “GIF” Pronounced “Jiff” or “Giff”?

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Words from the 'Odyssey'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
image of a green cube out of place in a lineup of red spheres
Odd Word Out: Synonyms Vol. 2 Quiz Figure out which word isn't like the others.
See All