unemployed

English

Etymology

un- +‎ employed

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɔɪd

Adjective

unemployed (not comparable)

1. Having no profession (despite being able and willing to work).
2. Having no use, not doing work
   • 2011 November 12, “International friendly: England 1-0 Spain”, BBC Sport:

     England's attacking impetus was limited to one shot from Lampard that was comfortably collected by keeper Iker Casillas, but for all Spain's domination of the ball his England counterpart Joe Hart was unemployed.

Synonyms

• (having no job): jobless, out of work (used only after the noun), out-of-work

Translations

having no job

• Albanian: i papunë (sq)
• Arabic: متبطل (ar) (mutabáTTil) m, متبطلة (ar) (mutabáTTila) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 失業的 (cmn), 失业的 (cmn) (shīyè de)

• Czech: nezaměstnaný (cs) m
• Danish: arbejdsløs (da)
• Dutch: werkloos (nl)
• Finnish: työtön (fi)
• French: au chômage (fr) invariant, inoccupé (fr), chômeur (fr)
• German: arbeitslos (de)
• Greek: άνεργος (el) (ánergos) m, άνεργη (el) (ánergi) f
• Hungarian: munkanélküli (hu)
• Irish: dífhostaithe (ga), neamhfhostaithe (ga)
• Italian: disoccupato (it) m, disoccupata (it) f

• Japanese: 失業者 (ja) (しつぎょうしゃ, shitsugyōsha)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: بێکار

• Lithuanian: bedarbis (lt)
• Luxembourgish: aarbechtslos (lb)
• Northern Sami: bargguheapme, bargguheapmi
• Polish: bezrobotny m, niezatrudniony m
• Portuguese: desempregado (pt) m
• Russian: безработный (ru) (bezrabótnyj) m, безработная (ru) (bezrabótnaja) f, безработные (ru) (bezrabótnyje) m pl
• Spanish: desempleado (es), cesante (es)
• Swedish: arbetslös (sv)
• Turkish: işsiz (tr)
• Volapük: nenvobik (vo)

Related terms

• unemployment

Noun

unemployed (plural only)

1. Unemployed people.

   The unemployed are a growing portion of the population.

Usage notes

• This is not a true noun. It is an example of a "fused-head" construction in which an adjective (or possessive or determiner) is assumed to have fused with an omitted noun which is grammatically required.

Synonyms

• jobless

Translations

the unemployed as a group

• Danish: arbejdsløs (da)
• Dutch: werklozen m pl and f pl
• Finnish: työttömät (fi)
• French: les chômeurs m pl
• German: die Arbeitslosen m pl
• Greek: οι άνεργοι (el) (oi ánergoi) m pl

• Italian: i disoccupati m pl
• Polish: bezrobotni pl
• Portuguese: os desempregados m pl
• Russian: безработные (ru) (bezrabótnyje) m pl
• Turkish: işsizler (tr) pl