recruitment

noun

re·​cruit·​ment ri-ˈkrüt-mənt 

1

: the action or process of recruiting

2

: the process of adding new individuals to a population or subpopulation (as of breeding or legally catchable individuals) by growth, reproduction, immigration, and stocking

also : a measure (as in numbers or biomass) of recruitment

Examples of recruitment in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But data shows that the uptick really began under the Biden administration, likely because of an increase in pay for military members, according to Rand, and as the military continued improving the recruitment process and boosted advertising and marketing. —Tom Bowman, NPR, 10 Apr. 2026

What started as a productivity tool — keeping tech workers on-site for lunch — and later morphed into a recruitment tool for employers, is now pitching itself as an amenity on par with lounges, gyms and roof decks in service of the back-to-office movement. —Robert Channick, Chicago Tribune, 9 Apr. 2026

Every dismissive physician who made a patient feel small created a recruitment event for sectarian medicine. —Kyle P. Edmonds, STAT, 9 Apr. 2026

The portal closes Monday, and then the recruitment for the 6-foot-8 forward is expected to intensify. —Joe Davidson, Sacbee.com, 9 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1793, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Medical Definition

recruitment

noun

re·​cruit·​ment ri-ˈkrüt-mənt 

1

: the increase in intensity of a reflex when the initiating stimulus is prolonged without alteration of intensity due to the activation of increasing numbers of motor neurons compare reinforcement

2

: an abnormally rapid increase in the sensation of loudness with increasing sound intensity that occurs in deafness of neural origin and especially in neural deafness of the aged in which soft sounds may be completely inaudible while louder sounds are distressingly loud