Word.ws English Dictionary

pink-collar

Syllables: pink-col·lar/pɪŋk ˈkɒlə/US/ˈpɪŋk ˌkɑlɚ/

pink-collar adjective: of or pertaining to employees in predominantly female service industries.

pink-collar: of or pertaining to employees in predominantly female service industries
Image: Abhisit Vejjajiva, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective

pink-collar (comparative more pink-collar, superlative most pink-collar)

  1. Of or pertaining to employees in predominantly female service industries.
    • Black men have tended to congregate in laborers' jobs and certain service occupations, young workers in trade and such service enterprises as gas stations (to a lesser extent also in laborers' jobs), and women in the so-called "pink collar" occupations in trade, the services, and clerical work in...1977, Glenn Siebert, Employment Service Potential: Indicators of Labor Market Activity, Sacramento, Calif.: Employment Research Section, California Employment Development Department, →OCLC, page 115
    • Good examples of employees under hidden stress are the nation's pink-collar workers. This group includes secretaries, clerks, data processors, telephone operators, and others.1992, Emrika Padus, The Complete Guide to Your Emotions and Your Health: Hundreds of Proven Techniques to Harmonize Mind & Body for Happy, Healthy Living, Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press, →ISBN, page 210

Forms of pink-collar

comparativemore pink-collar
superlativemost pink-collar
alternative formpink collar

Origin of pink-collar

From pink + collar. By analogy with various constructions ending in the word collar, especially blue-collar, and from the traditional conception of pink as a feminine color (with blue its masculine counterpart), a conception perhaps magnified in this case by the sometime popularity of pink blouses among women in the service industry.

Phrases with pink-collar

Questions about pink-collar

What does pink-collar mean?
Pink-collar means of or pertaining to employees in predominantly female service industries.
What part of speech is pink-collar?
Pink-collar is an adjective.
How do you pronounce pink-collar?
Pink-collar is pronounced /pɪŋk ˈkɒlə/ (UK).

Words near pink-collar in the dictionary

  1. pink waves
  2. pink weed
  3. pink windmills
  4. pink-billed lark
  5. pink-billed larks
  6. pink-collar
  7. pink-collar work
  8. pink-eared duck
  9. pink-eared ducks
  10. pink-eye
  11. pink-eyed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pink-collar (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-pink-collar.ogg, en-au-pink-collar.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pink-collar.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pink-collar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.