LAYOFFS Synonyms: 38 Similar and Opposite Words

layoffs

noun

plural of layoff

as in dismissals

the termination of the employment of an employee or a work force often temporarily even senior employees lost their jobs in the massive layoff

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in winters

a period of often involuntary inactivity or idleness after such a long layoff the boxer badly needed to get back into shape

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of layoffs Privately, even with layoffs looming once the companies are merged, the ambitious Democrats were wobbly kneed in this corporate game of chicken that MAGA-friendly Ellison would leave them holding the bag jut before the midterms. — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 24 Sep. 2026 The team’s cost-cutting measures, which included more than 400 layoffs, helped the club post a $30 million operating profit, versus a loss of $24 million in the year prior. — Kurt Badenhausen, Sportico.com, 23 Sep. 2026 That is not a blanket promise against layoffs, and any agreed upon coverage, exceptions, processes, and remedies remain largely unclear. — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 23 Sep. 2026 Automakers are also grappling with certain skilled labor shortages and an aging human workforce—although the push to deploy more robots and AI has generated backlash from labor unions concerned about layoffs and pressure on worker compensation. — Jeremy Hsu, ArsTechnica, 22 Sep. 2026 Despite such justifications, these cuts, closures and layoffs have caused morale to plummet at Goddard, some current workers say, and have left management increasingly disconnected from the research center’s day-to-day operations. — Eric Niiler, Scientific American, 22 Sep. 2026 That equipment ultimately failed to lure back shoppers and the company conducted another round of layoffs at the beginning of the year. — Jordan Valinsky, CNN Money, 22 Sep. 2026 Today’s Xbox layoffs are also part of a larger reorganization of Xbox today. — Tom Warren, The Verge, 22 Sep. 2026 Amid layoffs, corporate restructuring, and role expansion (as employees try to keep up with AI outputs), your workforce is feeling stressed out. — Mallory McCord, Harvard Business Review, 17 Sep. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for layoffs

Noun

Multiple criminal cases had involved Berlusconi, but most ended in dismissals.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026
The dismissals ended the corruption review, which was in its early stages.

— William Turton, ProPublica, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of dismissals

Noun

Wet El Niño winters can fill reservoirs such as Folsom and Oroville quickly, forcing larger releases downstream and sending water into the Yolo and Sutter bypasses.

— Sean Macaday, Sacbee.com, 21 Sep. 2026
With climate change, droughts are getting more severe, winters are getting warmer, and average snow lines have moved higher in the mountains.

— Ian James, Los Angeles Times, 17 Sep. 2026

Definition of winters

Noun

Patel later suggested that the scope of firings had been overblown, saying many agents had retired on their own.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 16 Sep. 2026
Meanwhile, the lawmakers, three former Education secretaries and the largest federal employee union are calling for an inspector general investigation into the mass firings made at the department last year.

— Arthur Jones II, ABC News, 16 Sep. 2026

Definition of firings

Noun

These trends often materialize in batch changeovers, supplier changes, line downtimes and traceability challenges.

— Ihor Yurchenko, Forbes.com, 10 Aug. 2026
The average response time for phone calls dropped to 6 minutes from 30 minutes in the prior fiscal year; field office wait times decreased to 23 minutes; and removal of online service downtimes has benefited an additional 125,000 users in a single week, according to the agency's findings.

— Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Aug. 2025

Definition of downtimes

Noun

Autonomous trucks have the potential to roll for up to 20 hours a day, while a truck driver's hours are limited by federal laws that require drivers to take breaks.

— Phil LeBeau,Meghan Reeder, CNBC, 22 Sep. 2026
But baseball teams that outlast the competition over a full season are more impressive to me than those that catch enough breaks during the small sample size of October.

— Michael Cunningham, AJC.com, 21 Sep. 2026

Definition of breaks

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lay off (of)

layoffs

lay on

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“Layoffs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/layoffs. Accessed 28 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of layoffs

noun

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