worker

American  

[wur-ker] / ˈwɜr kər /

noun

• workers
  plural

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 (contrasted with molder).

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.

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worker British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonworker
  noun
• subworker
  noun
• workerless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• workers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of worker

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

worker workers

"Nothing has changed in Italy over the 45 years I've been on this planet and nothing will," said Maurizio, a sandal-wearing IT worker who preferred to give only his first name.

From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026

A British aid worker says he was mistaken as a survivor of Nepal's flash floods, after it was incorrectly announced he had been rescued.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

She recalls a young IT worker who’d been a particular target.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

Jemma works in healthcare and has a 40-minute commute to a larger town – not unusual in rural mid Wales – and her partner is a support worker.

From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026

And then his gaze stopped on that one strange picture, the one with the social worker all dressed up in a tuxedo next to that familiar woman.

From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman

This investing strategy is harder for the large swaths of low- and moderate-income workers who can’t afford to consider buying to begin with.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

Aid Worker Security Database, whose figures have been cited by the UN and UK government, told BBC Verify it has recorded 22 aid workers killed in Gaza since 10 October 2025.

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

The government had said intially it believed that more than 100 workers could be alive inside multiple tunnels.

From Barron's ● Sep. 2, 2026

Volkswagen is bloated, employing many more workers per car produced than competitors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

He called the workers together and took responsibility for having sent them into the line of fire, saying his judgment was to blame.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland

Related Words

• employee
• laborer
• staff