worker

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a person who works at a specific occupation

   I am a good worker.

2. 2
   noun

   a member of the working class (not necessarily employed)

   workers of the world--unite!

3. 3
   noun

   One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor.

   Near-synonym: employee

4. 4
   noun

   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.

5. 5
   noun

   sterile member of a colony of social insects that forages for food and cares for the larvae

6. 6
   noun

   a person who acts and gets things done

7. 7
   noun

   A nonreproductive social insect, such as ant, bee, termite, or wasp.

Etymology

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