unemployment
noun
Simple meaning
A situation in which people who want jobs cannot find work.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnihmploymuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənɪmpˈlɔɪmənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The state of being unemployed or not having a job
“Unemployment is a serious social evil.”
The phenomenon of joblessness in an economy.
The state of having no job; joblessness.
The level of joblessness in an economy, often measured as a percentage of the workforce.
countable
An instance or period of joblessness.
countable
A type of joblessness due to a particular economic mechanism.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The state of being unemployed or not having a job
Used this way, unemployment is a common word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Unemployment is a serious social evil.”
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use unemployment
- “Unemployment is a serious social evil.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Payment by a United States agency to unemployed people.
A queue of people waiting for employment.
The percentage of the work force that is unemployed at any given date.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.