WORD OF THE DAY: VOCATION
noun | voh-KAY-shun
Vocation can refer simply to an occupation, or it can refer to a strong calling to pursue a particular kind of work or course of action.
// Since he was a teenager, he knew that he would find his vocation in marine biology.
// She is headed to medical school to pursue her vocation as a doctor.
EXAMPLES OF VOCATION
“Through her education and her father’s encouragement, she had nurtured a vocation for literature and was determined to make a career for herself in the bundan, Japan’s literary elite …” — Bryan Karetnyk, introduction to Troubled Waters by Higuchi Ichiyō, 2026
DID YOU KNOW?
When vocation was first used in English in the 15th century it referred specifically to a summons from God to perform a particular task or function in life, especially a religious one. This meaning is no surprise given the word’s source: it comes from the Latin vocation-, vocacio, meaning “summons,” which in turn comes from vocāre, meaning “to call.” Vocation also has a non-religious function in the English language as a word for the strong desire to do a certain kind of work, or as a word for the work itself, making vocation a synonym of the words calling and occupation.
Merriam Webster Dictionary
