Workplace

How to spell workplace

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce workplace

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does workplace mean?

1. nounThe location where a person carries out their job or employment.

Workplace in a sentence

• The new policy bans smoking anywhere in the workplace.

• A tidy workplace tends to improve concentration and morale.

Where does workplace come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent compound of two very old native words, 'work' and 'place'. 'Work' descends from Old English 'weorc', meaning a deed, an effort, or something done, and it traces back to the same ancient Germanic root that also gave us the Greek 'ergon', 'work', visible today in 'energy'. 'Place' is the older borrowing of the pair: it came into Old English from Latin 'platea', meaning a broad street or open space, which Latin had itself taken from the Greek 'plateia', 'broad'. The two words sat side by side for centuries before being joined into a single noun; 'workplace' as a fixed compound is relatively modern, becoming common only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as industrial and office labour gave people a distinct site for their employment. Because it is simply 'work' plus 'place' with nothing dropped or doubled, the spelling holds no real trap once you see the seam between the two halves.

How the word is built

• work (labour, occupation)
• place (location, spot)