Meaning & use
semiretired
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivenot comparable
Working only part of the time after having had a full-time job, often because of age.
Grammar: Describes a state, not a degree; it usually comes after the verb be or before a noun: She is semiretired; a semiretired teacher.
Patterns
- be semiretired
- a semiretired worker
My father is semiretired and goes to the office only two mornings a week.
After thirty years of teaching, she became semiretired and now takes on just a few private students.
The company relies on semiretired engineers for short projects.
Common combinations
- semiretired from
- He is semiretired from the law but still advises a few clients.
- semiretired status
- She applied for semiretired status so she could keep her health insurance.
- go semiretired
- Many people go semiretired before they stop working completely.
- semiretired consultant
- They hired a semiretired consultant to review the plans.
Synonyms and how they differ
- part-time
- Describes any job with fewer than full hours, whether or not the person was ever full-time.
- retired
- Means having stopped work completely, so it is stronger than semiretired.
Opposites
Word family
- retire verb
- to stop working permanently, usually because of age
- retirement noun
- the period of life after you stop working
- semi- prefix
- half or partly, as in semiskilled
Commonly confused: semiretired or semi-retired?
semiretired vs semi-retired
The hyphenated spelling is also common, especially in British English; both forms mean the same.
Practice
Which sentence uses semiretired correctly?
Choose one answer.
Semiretired is an adjective describing a person who works part-time after full-time work. Option B uses it after 'is' to describe her situation. Option A uses it as a verb, which is not standard; option C uses it as a verb with an object, which is wrong; option D uses it as a noun, which is also wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “semiretired”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.