worker
- 01 A1 Beginner
a 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.
Simple“The factory has over five hundred workers who make car parts.”
In context“The union representative argued that every worker deserves a safe environment and a fair wage for their contributions to the company's success.”
- 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
an 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.
Simple“The worker bees spend their days collecting nectar from nearby flowers.”
In context“In many ant species, the worker caste is responsible for defending the colony and tending to the larvae produced by the queen.”
- 03 C1 Advanced
a 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.
Simple“The web browser uses a background worker to load the images while you read.”
In context“By 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'.
Synonymsthreadbackground process
Usage worker protections · skilled worker · social worker
From Middle English werkere, worcher, wercher, equivalent to work + -er. Displaced the older term wright, from Old English wyrhta.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.