# job

/ˈdʒɑb/ (US)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/job
Updated: 2026-08-15

## Senses

### 1. paid employment

noun · CEFR A1

the regular work that you do to earn money.

For teachers: a regular remunerative position; a specific role within the economy for which an individual receives a salary or wage.

- She started her new job at the hospital last Monday.
- After months of searching, he finally secured a job in the renewable energy sector that matched his engineering background.

Usage: This is a countable noun.

### 2. a specific task

noun · CEFR A2

a particular piece of work that you have to do.

For teachers: a specific piece of work or a task to be done, often as part of a larger project.

- I have a few jobs to do around the house before the guests arrive.
- The manager assigned the most difficult jobs to the senior technicians to ensure the repairs were completed correctly.

### 3. computing task

noun · CEFR B2 · Technical

a set of instructions or a program that a computer processes at one time.

For teachers: a unit of work or a collection of tasks processed by a computer system, particularly in batch processing environments.

- The print job was stuck in the queue for twenty minutes.
- The system administrator scheduled the data backup job to run automatically at midnight when server traffic was at its lowest.

Usage: Often used in the context of servers or mainframes.

### 4. a crime

noun · CEFR B2 · Informal

a crime, especially a robbery.

For teachers: a criminal act, specifically a planned robbery or heist.

- The police believe the bank job was planned for months.
- The gang spent weeks scouting the jewellery store before attempting the high-stakes job.

### 5. a thing

noun · CEFR C1 · Informal · British English

a word used for an object when you cannot remember its name.

For teachers: a placeholder name for an object or device whose specific name is forgotten or unknown.

- Pass me that plastic job for opening the jars.
- He was using one of those fancy electronic jobs to measure the distance between the walls.

Usage: Often used with 'that' or 'this'.

### 6. to work occasionally

verb · CEFR C2 · Formal

to do small pieces of work for different people rather than having one regular job.

For teachers: to work at various odd jobs or to subcontract work in small portions.

- He spent the summer jobbing for various local builders.
- The firm decided to job out the electrical components of the project to a specialised local contractor.

Usage: Often used in business or construction contexts.

## Examples

- She starts her new job at the hospital on Monday.
- After finishing university, he spent three months looking for a full-time job in marketing.
- The candidate's previous job involved managing a diverse team of engineers across three different time zones while maintaining strict project deadlines.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.