What does career mean?
A career is the long-term course of a person's working life, encompassing the jobs, roles, and progression someone undertakes within a profession or field. Unlike a single job, a career implies continuity and development: one speaks of building, changing, advancing, or pursuing a career. The word carries broadly positive connotations of ambition and purposeful growth, appearing constantly in phrases like 'career path' and 'career move'. As a verb — chiefly in British English — to career means to rush forward wildly and uncontrollably, a vivid image preserved from the word's racing origins. Derived ultimately from Latin via French, career literally once meant a racetrack, which makes its modern figurative use apt: a career is indeed the track along which a person's working life travels.
The course or progress of a person's working life, particularly within a chosen profession or field of activity.
"Her diplomatic career spanned three continents and two decades."
Commonly modified by adjectives denoting stage or type: successful, distinguished, mid-, late-, dual-.
To move swiftly and uncontrollably, typically in a headlong rush or swerving manner.
"The van careered across the icy road before coming to rest against a wall."
Chiefly British; in American English 'careen' is more common in this sense.
Used when referring to the working lives or professional trajectories of multiple people, or metaphorically to multiple successive paths within one person's life.
"The university offers guidance to students planning their future careers."
The word for your working life comes straight from Latin for a chariot racetrack — your career is literally the track you race around.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of career
Career derives from Middle French 'carrière', meaning a road or racetrack, itself from Old Provençal 'carriera' and ultimately from Latin 'carraria', a road for wheeled vehicles, based on 'carrus' meaning cart or wagon. The racing sense — running at full speed — entered English in the sixteenth century and gave rise to the verb meaning to move headlong and without restraint. The sense of one's course through professional life developed later, becoming well established by the nineteenth century. It shares its root with words such as carriage, carry, cargo, and chariot, all tracing back to the same Latin vehicle-related stem.
Related word forms
How career is actually used
The noun is standard and neutral across registers. The verb sense ('to career') survives mainly in British and literary English describing uncontrolled motion; American writers frequently substitute 'careen' here, so context usually disambiguates.
Easily confused with career
A carrier is a person or company that transports goods or people (or a disease vector), whereas a career is one's course of working life; they differ by the '-ier' versus '-eer' ending despite similar spelling.
Careen means to lurch or sway from side to side while in motion, often confused with 'career', which properly means to rush headlong without control — though American usage increasingly blends the two.