バイト (baito)

What it means

1. 1.

   A part-time job, and the shift you work at it. The standard word for student and casual work, used in job adverts as readily as in conversation.

Examples with translations

• 今日バイトあるから行けない。

  I've got a shift today, so I can't come.

• コンビニでバイトしてる。

  I work part-time at a convenience store.

Where it comes from

Clipped from アルバイト, borrowed from German Arbeit ('work') by nineteenth-century students — one of a small set of German loans in Japanese that came through the universities. It means part-time work only; a full-time job is 仕事.

Other forms

Romanised as:

baito

Spellings and variants:

アルバイト