worker

[ wur-ker ]

noun

1. a person or thing that works.
2. a laborer or employee:

   steel workers.

3. a person engaged in a particular field, activity, or cause:

   a worker in psychological research; a worker for the Republican Party.

4. Entomology.
   1. a member of a caste of sexually underdeveloped, nonreproductive bees, specialized to collect food and maintain the hive.
   2. a similar member of a specialized caste of ants, termites, or wasps.
5. Printing. one of a set of electrotyped plates used to print from ( molder ² ).
6. any of several rollers covered with card clothing that work in combination with the stripper rollers and the cylinder in the carding of fibers.

worker

/ ˈwɜːkə /

noun

1. a person or thing that works, usually at a specific job

   a good worker

   a research worker

2. an employee in an organization, as opposed to an employer or manager
3. a manual labourer or other employee working in a manufacturing or other industry
4. any other member of the working class
5. a sterile female member of a colony of bees, ants, or wasps that forages for food, cares for the larvae, etc

Derived Forms

• ˈworkerless, adjective

Other Words From

• non·worker noun
• sub·worker noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of worker¹

First recorded in 1300–50, worker is from the Middle English word werker, worcher. See work, -er ¹

Example Sentences

Before Wen Jiahan, a 30-year-old tech worker living in Beijing, came out to her family this year, she watched videos similar to those that Shi, Teddy’s mom, shared online.

From Los Angeles Times

"We are still stuck with the problems we faced before. We still don't have financial help even to fulfil our daily needs," 26-year-old garment factory worker Manjula Devi, who works in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone near Colombo, told the BBC.

From BBC

Nuzzo also pointed to a recent study published in Nature, led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka, an H5N1 expert at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, that showed the virus that infected the first reported dairy worker in Texas had acquired mutations that made it more severe in animals as well as allowing it to move more efficiently between them — via airborne respiration.

From Los Angeles Times

Fortunately, that isolate has not been seen since it appeared in that one Texas dairy worker.

From Los Angeles Times

It’s unclear why the worker did not present with more severe symptoms.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• employee
• laborer
• staff