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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

career.

One’s calling in life; one's working occupation or profession, especially when pursued seriously or over a long period of time.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kəˈɹɪə/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈɹɪɹ/General-American/kəˈɹɪ.ɚ//kəˈrɪjə(r)/

  1. One’s calling in life; one's working occupation or profession, especially when pursued seriously or over a long period of time.

  2. The course, evolution, and ongoing advancement of one's working life, especially in one particular field.

    Washington’s career as a soldier
    This scandal could ruin his career.

  3. The general course of one's action or conduct in life, or in a particular area of life.

  4. Speed.

    archaic

  5. A jouster's path during a joust.

  6. A short gallop of a horse.

    obsolete

  7. The flight of a hawk.

  8. A racecourse; the ground run over.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Mid 16th century, from French carrière (“road; racecourse”), from Italian carriera, from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carrāria based on Latin carrus (“wheeled vehicle”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós, from *ḱers- (“to run”); alternatively, from Middle French carriere, from Old Occitan.

verb/kəˈɹɪə/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈɹɪɹ/General-American/kəˈɹɪ.ɚ//kəˈrɪjə(r)/

  1. To move rapidly straight ahead, especially in an uncontrolled way.

    The car careered down the road, missed the curve, and went through a hedge.
Where this word comes from

Mid 16th century, from French carrière (“road; racecourse”), from Italian carriera, from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carrāria based on Latin carrus (“wheeled vehicle”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós, from *ḱers- (“to run”); alternatively, from Middle French carriere, from Old Occitan.

adj/kəˈɹɪə/Received-Pronunciation/kəˈɹɪɹ/General-American/kəˈɹɪ.ɚ//kəˈrɪjə(r)/

  1. Doing something professionally, for a living (generally said of something that is not a commonplace job, e.g. criminal activity).

    not-comparable
    a career burglar

  2. Synonym of serial (“doing something regularly”).

    broadly · not-comparable
    a career rapist
Where this word comes from

Mid 16th century, from French carrière (“road; racecourse”), from Italian carriera, from Old Occitan carreira, from Late Latin carrāria based on Latin carrus (“wheeled vehicle”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós, from *ḱers- (“to run”); alternatively, from Middle French carriere, from Old Occitan.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.