# worker

/ˈwɝkɝ/ (US) · /wˈɜːkɐ/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/worker
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. an employee

noun · CEFR A1

a person who does a job, especially for a company or an employer.

For teachers: an individual who performs labour for a living, often used to distinguish employees from management.

- The factory has over five hundred workers who make car parts.
- The union representative argued that every worker deserves a safe environment and a fair wage for their contributions to the company's success.

### 2. social insect

noun · CEFR B2

an insect, like an ant or a bee, that does the work for its colony but does not have babies.

For teachers: a member of a non-reproductive caste in social insects that performs tasks such as foraging and nest maintenance.

- The worker bees spend their days collecting nectar from nearby flowers.
- In many ant species, the worker caste is responsible for defending the colony and tending to the larvae produced by the queen.

### 3. computing process

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

a small part of a computer program that does a specific task in the background.

For teachers: a thread or process that performs a specific task independently, often to keep the main interface responsive.

- The web browser uses a background worker to load the images while you read.
- By offloading the data processing to a service worker, the application remains interactive even during heavy computational cycles.

Usage: Often used in the compound terms 'web worker' or 'service worker'.

## Examples

- The factory has over five hundred workers.
- Social workers provide essential support to families in the community who are facing difficult financial times.
- The transition to an automated assembly line significantly reduced the number of manual workers required to maintain daily production quotas.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.