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white-collar

white-collar

37 4.0
Describing people who work in offices and do professional or management jobs
  • adjective
  • /ˈwaɪtˌkɑːlər/
translation icon : de cuello blanco
  • The company announced that it will hire more white-collar employees to improve its management team.
  • white-collar workers
  • white-collar jobs
  • white-collar employees

I'm going to go hire a white collar law firm.

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Examples

  • Many young graduates aspire to find a white-collar job in an office setting.

  • You will see there are houses for blue collar workers and houses for white collar workers.

  • Generative AI is already changing white collar work as we know it.

  • The defendant, like most white-collar offenders, had no prior criminal record.

    Academic text (2017)
  • In Ghana, professional associations of teachers, nurses, and other white-collar workers frequently joined trade union protests.

    Academic text (1996)
  • Since Brunei residents prefer white-collar jobs, much labor is imported from Indonesia and the Philippines.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Merchants, professionals, shopkeepers, and other white-collar occupations are 42% of the labor force.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Long-term joblessness has become more common in Finland, and redundancy now also affects white-collar occupations.

    Academic text (1999)
  • She has a white-collar position that involves overseeing various projects and budgets.

Antonyms

61 3.6

Related to jobs that involve physical work, like factory or construction work

How Intellectual

expert
3.2
professional
401 3.7
white-collar
37 4.0
clerical
25 3.7
blue-collar
61 3.6
manual laborer
  • US
1 3.0

Surface Forms

white-collar positive

Morphology

white-collar = white + collar (semi-transparent) = white + collar

The components 'white' and 'collar' are literal, but the occupational meaning 'professional/office worker' is a conventionalized metaphor that learners may not infer from the parts alone.

Etymology

White-collar comes from the white collars of shirts that office workers used to wear. So, white-collar means people who do professional or 'office' work, not manual or factory work, which people call blue-collar.