career
Pluralcareers
Verbcareers, careering, careered
Pluralcareers
Formscareers, careering, careered
- 1The job or profession someone follows for a long part of their life, and their progress in it.
After graduate school, she launched a career in marine biology.
Many teachers devote their entire careers to a single school.
Usagea career in a field, a career as a nurse; people start, build or change careers.
Note
Behind the working-life meaning stands a racetrack. A career was first a course to be run, and the occupation is that course seen as a life. In a line from 1970, John Lennon frames choosing one as something society expects of the young.
- 2To move rapidly, especially in a way that is hard to control.
The truck careered across three lanes before finally stopping.
Loose barrels career across the deck whenever the ship rolls.
UsageUsually with a direction word: cars career down a hill or career into a fence. Careen is used in much the same way.
Similarcareen
Note
The verb is all forward motion with too little steering, and it almost always takes a direction. Cars career down roads, coaches career into fields, and a rugby player careers out of his own half.
- 3The overall course of a person's actions or conduct, whether in life as a whole or in one particular area.
Her whole school career was a string of prizes and perfect report cards.
Looking back on the reckless career of his youth, he regretted the friends he had let down.
UsageOften with a word for the part of life: school career, a career of crime.
Note
Here the course is no longer confined to paid work. A school career is the run of years someone spent as a pupil, and the word can describe a public life or any stretch of conduct with a shape to it. The test is simple: when the path has a beginning, a direction and a record but is not an occupation, this is the meaning in play.
- 4Following a particular occupation as a lasting profession rather than temporarily, whether an ordinary one or a criminal one.
Detectives spent years tracking a career burglar across the state.
She was a career diplomat who served under five presidents.
UsageUsed before another noun: a career diplomat, a career criminal, a career soldier.
Similarprofessional
Oppositeamateur
Note
A noun used before another noun to mark a pursuit as someone's livelihood: a career burglar, a career panhandler, a career diplomat. With crime it suggests professional habit, and with diplomacy it marks a member of the professional service rather than a political appointee.
Less common meanings
- 5Doing a particular thing over and over as a habit rather than as a job; serial.
Editors grew tired of the career objector who challenged every proposal.
She earned a reputation as a career rule-breaker at school.
UsageBefore a noun for a habit, usually critical: a career complainer, a career troublemaker. Serial says the same more plainly.
Similarserial
Note
The loosened version of the label drops the idea of earning a living and keeps only repetition, so a career rapist is simply a serial offender. The two uses look identical before a noun, so context has to decide whether a living or a habit is meant.
- 6Rapid motion; the speed at which something moves, especially at full pace.
when a horse is running in his full career
1648, John Wilkins, Mathematical MagickWhat rein can hold licentious wickedness When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry VNote
Older English used the word for momentum itself, and it survives almost entirely in one phrase, in full career, meaning at top pace. Shakespeare's Henry V gives wickedness a "fierce career" down the hill. John Wilkins in 1648 writes of a horse "running in his full career." Carlyle in 1843 already turns the phrase on Democracy. Today it gives deliberate period color.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- Career historically meant speed or rapid motion. en.wiktionary.org
- In full career means moving at full speed. archive.org
- Shakespeare's Henry V describes wickedness pursuing a fierce career downhill; King Henry V speaks the lines. shakespeare.mit.edu
- John Wilkins uses the quoted wording in Mathematicall Magick. archive.org
- Mathematicall Magick was first published in 1648. collections.soane.org
- Thomas Carlyle applies in full career to Democracy in Past and Present. gutenberg.org
- Past and Present was first published in 1843. en.wikipedia.org
- 7A short gallop performed by a horse.
Such littleness damps the heat, and weakens the force of genius; as we check a horse in his career, and rein him in when we want him to amble
1756, William Guthrie (translator), Of Eloquence (originally by Quintillian)Note
An obsolete horseman's term, found in the early spelling cariere. John Florio's 1603 translation of Montaigne's Essayes has Caesar make his horse "run a full cariere" and then stop dead. That is the same full collocation as the archaic "speed" sense, and William Guthrie's 1756 Quintilian checks "a horse in his career." In such lines, the gallop and its speed are hard to pull apart.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
- Career was a horseman's term for a short gallop. en.wiktionary.org
- John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essayes was first published in 1603. celm.folger.edu
- The attribution and action are correct, but the 1603 text spells the verb runne: "runne a full cariere". hyperessays.net
- The collocation full career also appears under the archaic speed sense. en.wiktionary.org
- William Guthrie's translation of Quintilian was first published in 1756. en.wikisource.org
- Guthrie's translation contains the phrase "a horse in his career" in a comparison about checking a horse. en.wiktionary.org
- 8A racecourse; the stretch of ground covered during a race.
to think of going back again the same career
a. 1587, Philip Sidney, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia]Note
The most literal survivor of the word's origin in "road; racecourse" (see the working-life meaning): the ground a race is run over. Philip Sidney, writing before 1587, speaks of "going back again the same career," a course retraced. The word is obsolete in this use, and a modern reader meets it only in older texts.
- 9The path a jouster follows while charging toward an opponent during a joust.
These knights, therefore, their aim being thus eluded, rushed from opposite sides betwixt the object of their attack and the Templar, almost running their horses against each other ere they could stop their career.
1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. - 10The flight of a hawk, especially its course through the air while hunting.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
English took it from French 'carrière' ('road' or 'racecourse') in the mid 16th century. The French came by way of Italian 'carriera' and Old Occitan 'carreira' from Late Latin 'carrāria', a word built on Latin 'carrus' ('wheeled vehicle'), which goes back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to run'.