Meaning & use
manual worker
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Meaning
nouncountable
A person whose job depends mostly on physical effort and the use of their hands, such as in construction, farming or factory work.
Grammar: Countable: a manual worker, many manual workers. The related term manual labor is uncountable.
Patterns
- work as a manual worker
- manual workers in something
Her father was a manual worker who spent forty years building roads.
Manual workers in the factory demanded safer equipment.
The study compared the health of manual workers and office staff.
Word forms
| plural | manual workers |
|---|
Common combinations
- skilled manual worker
- A skilled manual worker like an electrician earns a good wage.
- unskilled manual worker
- Unskilled manual workers often face unstable contracts.
- manual workers' union
- The manual workers' union called a meeting.
- become a manual worker
- After leaving school he became a manual worker on a farm.
- retired manual worker
- The retired manual worker still keeps his tools in the shed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- laborer
- Laborer suggests heavy, often unskilled physical work, whereas manual worker can include skilled trades.
- blue-collar worker
- Blue-collar worker is the common American term and sounds more informal and social.
- tradesperson
- A tradesperson has specific training in a craft, so it is narrower than manual worker.
- hand
- Hand, as in farm hand, is an older and narrower term for a worker in one setting.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: manual worker or manual?
manual worker vs manual
A manual can also be a handbook that explains how to use something, so the noun differs from the adjective in manual worker.
Practice
A manual worker is someone whose job mainly involves ____.
Choose one answer.
Manual workers do physical tasks with their hands. Desk work, teaching and managing are non-manual jobs.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “manual worker”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.