Occupation means your job or profession; it's a formal word used on forms, visa applications and surveys. It also means the control of a country or city by a foreign army, but this meaning is less common and appears in texts about history and war.
occupation: will you get the meaning right?
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state your name, age and occupation; Occupation: + job (on forms); What do you do? (in conversation); the occupation of + country/city
- On the visa form, I wrote 'software developer' in the box marked 'Occupation'.
- The survey asked for our age, occupation and how often we use public transport.
- On a walking tour, our guide told us how people survived the occupation of the city during the war.
What changed
First versionGreat party, isn't it? So, what's your occupation?
RevisionGreat party, isn't it? So, what do you do?
What's your occupation? sounds like a question from a form, a bank or passport control. At a party, the other person will feel as if they're filling in a form. In conversation, people ask about work with What do you do? Learners often memorise occupation as the word for “profession”, so it's easy to take it for a neutral word.
Job is your particular position and place of work: She's got a new job at a bank. Profession is work that needs long training, such as being a doctor or a lawyer: He's a lawyer by profession. Occupation is the most general and formal of the three, and it fits any kind of work.
Your turn
Sorry, I can't meet on Thursday: I have Spanish ___ until eight in the evening.
Show the answer
classes — The sentence is about Spanish lessons on your timetable, and those are classes or lessons. Occupation means the kind of work you do, and it isn't used to mean lessons.
Think of a form where you had to state your occupation. Write what the document was and what you put in that box.
When I applied for a UK visa, I wrote 'primary school teacher' under occupation.
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