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To employ someone is to pay them to work. An employer employs employees.

The state of being employed is employment.

A more specific use of employ is as a noun meaning employment or service. This sense of the word is almost always used in phrases like in their employ.��

Employ also means to use, as in This task will require you to employ a different skill set.

Less commonly, employ can mean to keep one busy or occupy one, as in During flights I usually employ myself with some knitting.��

Example: My company employs more than 500 people.

The first records of the word employ come from the 1400s. It ultimately derives from the Latin ����������������, meaning “to entangle” or “to engage” (the word engage is sometimes used to mean “to hire” or “to employ”). The words employer and employee came later. In employee, the suffix -ee indicates a person who is the object or beneficiary of employment.

While employees are often seen as the ones getting this benefit—and the benefits that sometimes come with it, such as health insurance—the employee-employer relationship is based on the exchange of work for money. This exchange is often formalized through some kind of contract or employment agreement, and employ is most often used in the context of official situations like this. Sometimes, a person may get paid by a company or person for work, but they may not consider themselves to be employed by that person or company—that is, they don’t consider themselves an employee. Such a person may be a freelancer, and they may consider themselves self-employed.

When employ is used as a general synonym for use, it’s often employed in situations involving the use of something in a specific way or for a specific purpose, as in He’s employing rhetoric to create division.

What are some other forms related to employ?

• employed (past tense verb, adjective)
• employer (noun)
• employee (noun)
• employment (noun)
• employable (adjective)

What are some synonyms for employ?

• use
• employment (when employ is used as a noun)

What are some words that share a root or word element with employ?��

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• self-employed
• unemployed
• underemployed

What are some words that often get used in discussing employ?

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• business
• company
• job
• pay
• hire
• work
• wages
• paycheck
• labor
• payroll

Employ is commonly used both in reference to paying someone to work and as another word for use.

Microsoft planning new R&D center in Northern Virginia expected to employ 1,500 people

— Kurt Luther (@kurtluther)

Group portrait of models employed by the Black Beauty agency (1969)

— Afroink (@eatingwithgods)

Mindfulness is the perfect awareness technique to employ when a conflict arises and wreaks havoc on our brains.

— Harvard Business Review (@HarvardBiz)

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Is employ used correctly in the following sentence?

I was in the employ of the same company for my entire career.