worker
n.-
1 an employee (n.) A1 Beginnera person who does a job, especially for a company or an employer.
an individual who performs labour for a living, often used to distinguish employees from management.
ExampleThe factory has over five hundred workers who make car parts.
ExampleThe union representative argued that every worker deserves a safe environment and a fair wage for their contributions to the company's success.
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2 social insect (n.) B2 Upper Intermediate Sciencean insect, like an ant or a bee, that does the work for its colony but does not have babies.
a member of a non-reproductive caste in social insects that performs tasks such as foraging and nest maintenance.
ExampleThe worker bees spend their days collecting nectar from nearby flowers.
ExampleIn many ant species, the worker caste is responsible for defending the colony and tending to the larvae produced by the queen.
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3 computing process (n.) C1 Advanced Technical Computinga small part of a computer program that does a specific task in the background.
a thread or process that performs a specific task independently, often to keep the main interface responsive.
ExampleThe web browser uses a background worker to load the images while you read.
ExampleBy offloading the data processing to a service worker, the application remains interactive even during heavy computational cycles.
UsageOften used in the compound terms 'web worker' or 'service worker'.
- thread
- background process
From Middle English werkere, worcher, wercher, equivalent to work + -er. Displaced the older term wright, from Old English wyrhta.
- Nouncoworker
- Nounworker