white-collar

adjective

white-col·​lar ˈ(h)wīt-ˈkä-lər 

: of, relating to, or constituting the class of salaried employees whose duties do not call for the wearing of work clothes or protective clothing compare blue-collar

Examples of white-collar in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Earlier this year, Dario Amodei, CEO of AI company Anthropic, estimated that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment to 10% to 20% in the next one to five years. —Duane Tursi, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025

But while Amodei thinks that AI could swipe half of white-collar roles in the next five years, spiking unemployment up to 20%, Yampolskiy said that joblessness could reach as high as 99% in that same time frame. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 9 Sep. 2025

Goldman Sachs economists have already issued a warning that generative AI has the potential to remove or drastically affect up to three hundred million jobs worldwide, with white-collar professionals being the most susceptible. —James Barrat, Big Think, 2 Sep. 2025

There is broad consensus that AI will fundamentally change the nature of work – and that the impact will be greater for white-collar and knowledge-based jobs, rather than manual and manufacturing labor. —Steven P. Dinkin, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1911, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for white-collar

• eurodollar
• caller
• collar
• crawler
• dollar
• faller
• haller
• hauler
• holler
• scholar
• smaller
• squalor

Kids Definition

white-collar

adjective

ˈhwīt-ˈkäl-ər,

ˈwīt-

: of, relating to, or being a member of the class of workers (as clerks and salespersons) whose duties do not require the wearing of work clothes