unemployed.
Having no job despite being able and willing to work.
Meaning & usage
Having no job despite being able and willing to work.
The government announced a new initiative to help the unemployed.
The number of unemployed keeps rising steadily.
Having no use, not doing work
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English employed English unemployed From un- + employed.
The unemployed people of a society or the world, taken collectively.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English employed English unemployed From un- + employed.
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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.