microretirement

M3I1C3R1O1R1E1T1I1R1E1M3E1N1T1

noun

An extended break from employment.

Scrabble 21

Meanings

nounmicroretirement (countable and uncountable, plural microretirements)

plural microretirements · alternative micro-retirement

  1. countableneologismuncountableAn extended break from employment.

    Anaïs Felt, a 31-year-old content creator based in the San Francisco Bay area, has “never felt better” after taking a microretirement this year.

    2024 December 31, Brooke Kato, “What is ‘microretirement’? Gen Z and millennials spawn new career trend to help with woes”, in New York Post, archived from the original on 05 Feb 2025
    2 more examples

    Though a few workers have committed to the microretirement lifestyle, more and more young people say they are open to the idea of taking extended breaks from work to volunteer or focus on "personal projects," WSJ noted, citing data from Handshake, a job database for college students.

    2024 September 7, Gabriel Hays, “Some young people plan ‘microretirements,’ borrow against goals of their future selves: Report”, in Fox Business, archived from the original on 02 Nov 2024

    Industries that enable employee microretirements typically share key characteristics: they offer flexible scheduling, remote work capabilities, project-based work structures and significant individual autonomy.

    2024 December 16, Tony Case, “Need a break? Microretirement may be the answer”, in WorkLife, archived from the original on 08 Apr 2025

    Synonyms: miniretirement

Synonyms & antonyms

nounAn extended break from employment.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*mey-der.?
  2. Ancient Greekμῑκρός (mīkrós)
  3. Ancient Greekμῑκρο- (mīkro-)
  4. Englishmicro-
  5. Englishretirement
  6. Englishmicroretirement

From micro- + retirement.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

microretirement. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/microretirement

MLA

“microretirement.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/microretirement. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “microretirement,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/microretirement.

Source: microretirement on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.