miner

American  

[mahy-ner] / ˈmaɪ nər /

noun

• miners
  plural

1. Also called mineworker.  a person who works in a mine, especially a commercial mine producing coal or metallic ores.

   His ancestors were slate miners in Wales who emigrated to the United States.

2. a mechanical device used in mining.

   She made her money by developing a miner for extracting ores from the ocean floor.

3. any of several Australian birds of the genus Manorina, feeding on honey and typically having a loud call.

4. Entomology. any of various insect larvae that create tunnels in the parenchyma of leaves.

5. Digital Technology.

   1. a computer or network of computers engaged in solving sets of mathematical problems that are used to verify cryptocurrency transactions and that, when solved, yield a unit of the currency.

   2. a software application that is designed to run this process.

   3. a person or company that engages in this process.

6. (formerly) a person who places or lays explosive mines.

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miner British  

/ ˈmaɪnə /

noun

1. a person who works in a mine

2. Also called: continuous miner.  a large machine for the automatic extraction of minerals, esp coal, from a mine

3. any of various insects or insect larvae that bore into and feed on plant tissues See also leaf miner

4. any of several honey-eaters of the genus Manorina, esp M. melanocephala (noisy miner), of scrub regions See noisy miner

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• miners
  plural

Etymology

Origin of miner

First recorded in 1225–75; mine ² + -er ¹; replacing Middle English minour, from Anglo-French ( see -or ²)

Explanation

Picture a hardhat, a headlamp and a pick, and you are on the right track. A miner is a person who makes a living digging coal, salt, gold, minerals, or other natural resources out of the earth. The root here is the noun mine—not the word that possessive toddlers like to shout, but the one that describes a man-made underground network of tunnels and quarries. Don’t confuse miner with minor (note the “o”). Minor refers to musical intervals, small or trivial things, and people under age 18.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

miner miners

Bitcoin miner Iren, which has moved to the AI compute business, is falling on earnings but it could be a buying opportunity, according to one Wall Street firm.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

Precious metals miner Hochschild Mining gains over 3% while Endeavour Mining is up 2.3%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

The analysts define their price as a multiple of marginal cost — the cost of the least efficient miner — of the last two cycles, from 2016 to 2019 and 2020 to 2023.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026

The miner backed its 2026 guidance and said that it sees attributable gold-equivalent production at the upper end of the 2.4 million ounce to 2.6 million ounce guided range.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

In California, for example, the loss of some 60,000 game fish, mostly blue- gill and other sunfish, followed an attempt to control the rice- leaf miner with dieldrin.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

Gold and lithium producers posted record profits while higher copper prices increased earnings for Sandfire and diversified miners BHP, Rio Tinto and South32, the broker says following the recent reporting season.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

"Things are still going to get worse in terms of infrastructure damage," said van Wyk, who estimates that there are more than 34,000 irregular miners in South Africa.

From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 2026

Parton could have limited her tracks to farmers, coal miners, swing shifters, assembly line workers and other laborers whom country music constantly lionizes, and no one would have complained.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

Oil majors fell on lower crude prices—BP and Shell declined 2.1% and 1.4%, respectively—though precious metals miners gained.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

Later, the Captain stopped all the hand digging and brought in giant machines, called continuous miners, to tear the coal from its seams.

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam

Related Words

• prospector