worker

English

Etymology

From Middle English werkere, worcher, wercher, equivalent to work +‎ -er. Displaced the older term wright, from Old English wyrhta.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɜː.kə/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɝ.kɚ/
Audio (US) (file)
Audio (UK) (file)
Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kə(ɹ)

Noun

worker (plural workers)

A person who performs labor for a living, especially manual labor.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Psalms 37:1:
  Fret not thy ſelfe becauſe of euill doers, neither bee thou enuious againſt the workers of iniquitie.
- 1986, Janice G. Raymond, A Passion for Friends: Toward a Philosophy of Female Affection‎, Boston: Beacon Press, →ISBN, LCCN 85-47942, OCLC 803087560, page 124:
  Writer Ta Chen, in a statistical study of industrial labor in China in 1933, recorded that 66.6 percent of the total number of workers in the four main industrial regions of Kwangtung were women. In Shun-te, 81.2 percent of the labor force were women.
- 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist‎, volume 411, number 8884:
  Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese […] began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated. The poisoning was irreversible, and soon ended in psychosis and death. Nowadays workers are exposed to far lower doses and manganism is rare.
- 2017 February 2, Jeff Farrell, “Fukushima nuclear disaster: Lethal levels of radiation detected in leak seven years after plant meltdown in Japan”, in The Independent‎, London:
  Although the radiation levels identified are high, a threat to human health is very unlikely because apart from workers at the site, no-one goes there.
A nonreproductive social insect, such as ant, bee, termite, or wasp.
1. (rare) A female ant, bee, termite or wasp.
(computing) A thread performing one instance of a particular task within a program.
This FTP client spawns a separate worker for each file to be uploaded.

Synonyms

(person who performs labor): laborer, labourer

Hyponyms

(person who performs labor): employee

Derived terms

anti-worker, antiworker
camera-worker
coworker
co-worker
dock worker, dockworker
dreamworker
freezing worker
key worker, keyworker
service worker
sex worker
steelworker
streetworker
track worker, trackworker

Translations

person who performs labor

Afrikaans: werker
Aghwan: 𐕌𐕒𐕡𐔽𐔰𐕄 (muˁaḳ)
Albanian: punëtor (sq) m, punëtore (sq) f
Amharic: ሠራተኛ (śäratäña)
Arabic: عَامِل‎ m (ʿāmil), عَامِلَة‎ f (ʿāmila)
Aragonese: treballador
Armenian: աշխատող (hy) (ašxatoł), (manual labor) բանվոր (hy) (banvor)
Aromanian: lucrãtor m, lucrãtonj m, argat m
Asturian: obreru m
Azerbaijani: işçi (az), fəhlə (az), zəhmətkeş
Bashkir: эшсе (eşse)
Belarusian: рабо́тнік m (rabótnik), рабо́тніца f (rabótnica), працаўні́к m (pracaŭník), працаўні́ца f (pracaŭníca)
Bengali: কর্মী (kôrmī)
Breton: labourer (br) m, micherour (br) m
Bulgarian: рабо́тник (bg) m (rabótnik), рабо́тничка f (rabótnička)
Burmese: အလုပ်သမား (my) (a.lupsa.ma:), လုပ်သား (my) (lupsa:)
Catalan: treballador (ca) m, treballadora (ca) f, obrer (ca) m
Chinese:
Mandarin: 工人 (zh) (gōngrén), 工作者 (zh) (gōngzuòzhě), 勞動者／劳动者 (zh) (láodòngzhě), 劳工 (zh) (láogōng)
Czech: dělník (cs) m, dělnice (cs) f
Danish: arbejder (da) c
Dutch: (♂♀) arbeider (nl) m, (♀) arbeidster (nl) f, (♂♀) arbeidskracht (nl) m or f
East Central German: Arbittr m
Egyptian:

(kꜣwtj)
Esperanto: (♂♀) laboristo, (♀) laboristino, (♂♀) laboranto, (♀) laborantino, (♂♀) proleto, (♀) proletino, (♂♀) proletario, (♀) proletariino
Estonian: töötaja (et)
Evenki: һавалимни
Finnish: työläinen (fi)
French: travailleur (fr) m, travailleuse (fr) f, ouvrier (fr) m, ouvrière (fr) f
Galician: obreiro (gl) m
Georgian: მუშა (muša), მუშაკი (mušaḳi)
German: Arbeiter (de) m, Arbeiterin (de) f, Angestellter (de) m, Angestellte (de) f, (Austrian German, colloquial) Hackler (de) m, Hacklerin f, Arbeitnehmer (de) m, Arbeitnehmerin (de) f
Gothic: 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍃𐍄𐍅𐌰 m (waurstwa)
Greek: εργάτης (el) m (ergátis), εργάτρια (el) f (ergátria)
Ancient: ἐργάτης m (ergátēs), ἐργάτις f (ergátis)
Gothic: 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍃𐍄𐍅𐌰 m (waurstwa)
Haitian Creole: travayè
Hebrew: עוֹבֵד‎ m (oved), עובדת‎ f (ovedet), פּוֹעֵל‎ (he) m (po'él), פּוֹעֶלֶת‎ f (pó'élet)
Hindi: मज़दूर (hi) m (mazdūr), कर्मी (hi) (karmī), कर्मचारी (hi) m (karmacārī)
Hungarian: munkás (hu)
Icelandic: starfsmaður (is) m
Ido: laboristo (io)
Indonesian: buruh (id)
Irish: oibrí (ga) m
Italian: lavoratore (it), operaio (it), lavorante (it)
Japanese: 労働者 (ja) (ろうどうしゃ, rōdōsha), 勤労者 (ja) (きんろうしゃ, kinrōsha), 働く人 (ja) (はたらくひと, hataraku hito)
Kazakh: жұмысшы (kk) (jūmysşy)
Khmer: បុគ្គលិក (km) (bokkĕəʼlɨk), កម្មករ (km) (kamkɑɑ), អ្នកធ្វើការ (nĕək thvəə kaa)
Korean: 노동자(勞動者) (ko) (nodongja), 로동자(勞動者) (ko) (rodongja) (North Korea), 근로자(勤勞者) (ko) (geulloja)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: کرێکار‎ (ku) (krêkar)
Northern Kurdish: karker (ku) m or f
Kyrgyz: жумушчу (ky) (jumuşçu)
Ladin: laurant
Ladino: lavorante, ovrero, ovrador, lavurador (Monastir)
Lao: ກຳມະກອນ (kam ma kǭn), ຄົນການ (khon kān), ຄົນເຮັດ (khon het), ພະນັກງານ (pha nak ngān)
Latin: operārius m
Latvian: strādnieks m, strādniece f
Lithuanian: darbininkas (lt) m, darbininkė f
Luxembourgish: Aarbechter (lb)
Macedonian: работник m (rabotnik), работничка f (rabotnička)
Malay: pekerja (ms)
Maltese: ħaddiem m, ħaddiema f
Manx: obbree m
Maori: kaimahi
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: ажилчин (mn) (ažilčin), ажилтан (mn) (ažiltan)
Mongolian: ᠠᠵᠢᠯᠴᠢᠨ (aǰilčin)
Mwani: nkolakazi
Norman: ouvriyi m (Jersey), travailleux m (Jersey)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: arbeider (no) m (male or female), arbeidsmann m (male)
Nynorsk: arbeidar m (male or female), arbeidsmann m (male)
Occitan: trabalhaire (oc) m, obrièr (oc) m
Old English: wyrhta m
Pashto: کارګر‎ m (kārgar), کاريګر‎ m (kārigar)
Persian: کارگر‎ (fa) (kârgar)
Polish: robotnik (pl) m, robotnica (pl) f
Portuguese: trabalhador (pt) m
Quechua: llamk'aq
Romanian: lucrător (ro) m, lucrătoare (ro) f, muncitor (ro) m, muncitoare (ro) f, angajat (ro) m, angajată (ro) f
Russian: рабо́тник (ru) m (rabótnik), рабо́тница (ru) f (rabótnica), рабо́чий (ru) m (rabóčij), рабо́чая (ru) f (rabóčaja), трудя́щийся (ru) m (trudjáščijsja), трудя́щаяся f (trudjáščajasja), тру́женик (ru) m (trúženik), тру́женица (ru) f (trúženica)
Scottish Gaelic: obraiche m, neach-obrach m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: ра̑днӣк m, ра̑дница f
Roman: rȃdnīk (sh) m, rȃdnica (sh) f
Shor: ишчи (işçi)
Sicilian: travagghiaturi (scn) m, lavureri (scn) m, opiraiu (scn) m, operaiu (scn) m, lavuraturi (scn) m
Sinhalese: කම්කරුවා (kamkaruwā), වැඩකාරයා (wæḍakārayā)
Slovak: robotník m, robotníčka f
Slovene: delavec (sl) m, delavka f
Spanish: trabajador (es) m, obrero (es) m
Swedish: arbetare (sv) c
Tagalog: manggagawa, trabahador
Tajik: коргар (tg) (korgar)
Tatar: эшче (tt) (eşçe)
Thai: คนงาน (th) (kon-ngaan), กรรมกร (th) (gam-má-gɔɔn), พนักงาน (th) (pá-nák-ngaan), ลูกจ้าง (th) (lûuk-jâang), คนทำงาน, ผู้ปฏิบัติงาน, ผู้ใช้แรงงาน
Tigrinya: ሰራሕተኛ (säraḥtäña)
Turkish: işçi (tr), emekçi (tr), amele (tr), faale (tr)
Turkmen: işçi
Udi: аьшбал (äšbal), ашбал (ašbal)
Ukrainian: робітни́к (uk) m (robitnýk), робітни́ця f (robitnýcja), працівни́к (uk) m (pracivnýk), працівни́ця (uk) f (pracivnýcja), трудя́щий m (trudjáščyj), трудя́ща f (trudjášča)
Urdu: مَزدُور‎ m (mazdūr)
Uyghur: ئىشچى‎ (ug) (ishchi)
Uzbek: ishchi (uz)
Vietnamese: công nhân (vi)
Volapük: (♂♀) voban (vo), (♂) hivoban, (♀) jivoban (vo)
Yiddish: אַרבעטער‎ m (arbeter), אַרבעטערין‎ f (arbeterin)

insect

Breton: labourerez f
Czech: dělnice (cs) f
Finnish: työläinen (fi)
French: ouvrier (fr) m, ouvrière (fr) f
Georgian: მუშა (muša)
German: Arbeiterin (de) f, Arbeitsameise f (ant), Arbeitsbiene (de) f (bee), Arbeitstermite f (termite), Arbeitswespe f (wasp)
Hungarian: dolgozó (hu)
Indonesian: pekerja (id)
Norman: ouvriyi m
Polish: robotnica (pl) f
Portuguese: operário (pt) m
Romanian: albină lucrătoare f (bee)
Russian: рабо́чий (ru) m (rabóčij) (ant, termite), рабо́чая пчела́ f (rabóčaja pčelá) (bee), рабо́чая оса́ f (rabóčaja osá) (wasp)
Spanish: obrera (es) f

Anagrams

rework