This is the 6246th most frequent Portuguese word.
contratado
"Hired" or "contracted."
In this sentence, 'contratado' means 'hired' (as in employed) and functions as a past participle adjective describing the employee.
O novo funcionário foi contratado ontem.
The new employee was hired yesterday.
Here, 'contratados' refers to the people who were hired, used as a past participle in a passive voice construction.
Eles ficaram muito felizes por serem contratados pela empresa.
They were very happy to be hired by the company.
In this instance, 'contratados' refers to 'new hires' functioning as a noun derived from the past participle.