coworker
Americannoun
Usage
What does coworker mean? A coworker is your fellow employee, especially a person you work closely with. The words worker and coworker both refer to paid employees. Even if you work closely with your fellow students or volunteers, you would not call them your coworkers. Example: I spent most of my first day meeting my coworkers who work in the same department.
Etymology
Origin of coworker
Compare meaning
How does coworker compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Finding out your coworker earns more than you can be discouraging and may make you question your own worth.
From MarketWatch • May 20, 2026
How do you advocate for yourself without coming across as whiny or dragging a coworker into the conversation when they probably never intended to reveal their salary?
From MarketWatch • May 20, 2026
A coworker urged her to not speak out again, she said, but she ended up losing her job after the contractor stopped calling her.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2026
The worst gifts aren’t the ones that miss; they are the ones that reveal no attempt at all—generic, last-minute, indistinguishable from what you would give a coworker in an office Secret Santa.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025
She mentioned it to her coworker, Heather, phrasing it carefully.
From "Son" by Lois Lowry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
