workforce
/ˈwɝk.foɹs/noun
workforce is a noun meaning “All the workers employed by a specific organization or state, or on a specific project” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled W-O-R-K-F-O-R-C-E and has 2 syllables, and it appears 8.7 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of workforce is workforces.
What does workforce mean?
noun
- 1
All the workers employed by a specific organization or state, or on a specific project.
- 2
The total population of a country or region that is employed or employable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce workforce?
- US /ˈwɝk.foɹs/
- US [ˈwɚk.fo̞ɹs]
- UK /ˈwɜːk.fɔːs/
Workforce has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-workforce.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of workforce
- workforces plural
- work force
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is workforce?
Workforce appears 8.7 times per million words in written English, the 7,797th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Words people confuse with workforce
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: work force (one word or two).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Workforce in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense workers employed by an organization:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | main-d'œuvre, personnel, effectif |
| German | Belegschaft, Arbeitskräfte |
| Portuguese | mão de obra |
| Spanish | mano de obra, fuerza laboral, fuerza de trabajo, población activa |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does workforce come from?
From work + force.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).