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.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
The doting boyfriend, the overzealous best friend, the snide coworker, the absentee mother — played here by Kristen Johnston, whose character’s name is ingeniously spelled “Beverlee.”
From Salon • Jun. 22, 2026
Suddenly, the man who urges his charges to work as a team can’t forgive the coworker he once trusted the most.
From Salon • Jan. 8, 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
If you rub a coworker the wrong way, expect them to undermine you when your back is turned.
From MarketWatch • Nov. 3, 2025
One coworker was openly hostile and competitive, the first time Jesse had ever encountered office politics.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
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.
