Skip to main content
line worker

line worker

4 2.6
A person who works on an assembly line doing the same tasks
  • noun
  • /laɪn ˈwɜrkər/
translation icon : trabajador de línea
  • Eighty percent, or 2,000, of these employees are hourly line workers who manufacture top-mount refrigerators and 50-pound icemakers.
  • assembly line workers
  • front-line workers
  • production line workers

Examples

  • Beth DeSenza was a production line worker at a large garment factory just outside the city.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • Every person at the plant, from front line workers to the plant manager, received the same bonus amount.

    Academic text (2003)
  • You are not really talking about the value added by line workers here.

    Blog text (10)
  • I do not know if your statistics are based on line worker salaries or executive salaries.

    Academic text (1996)
  • One group of students formed an assembly line, with each line worker making only one part of the doughnut.

    Academic text (1992)
  • I think Donner has some openings for assembly line workers.

  • Moore: Assembly-line workers here earn over $65,000 a year, more than three times the pay for a starting pilot at American Eagle.

  • In short, despite China's dramatic export growth, the benefits have not trickled down to the assembly-line workers who make the exported goods.

    Academic text (2002)
  • The study included both hourly and salaried employees—assembly line workers, administrative clerks, technicians, engineers, as well as managers.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Beth DeSenza was a line worker at a large garment factory just outside the city.

Synonyms

factory worker
vsline worker
23 1.3

A person who works in a factory doing physical work on machines and assembly lines

is focused on repetitive tasks in a production sequence rather than broader production jobs
manual laborer
vsline worker
  • US
1 3.0

A person who does hard work using their hands

is specific to repeated production tasks rather than general physical work
line personnel
vsline worker
  • Specialized
5.5

People who work directly in a company's main operations, like factory or sales staff

is narrower referring to repetitive production roles within manufacturing operations

How Skilled

supervisor
346 2.8
technician
  • Specialized
184 3.7
line worker
4 2.6

Surface Forms

line worker singular
line workers plural

Morphology

line + worker

The meaning 'an employee who works on an assembly line' is directly compositional from 'line' (a row/assembly line) + 'worker' (a person who works), so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer someone who works on a production line. This noun–noun compound follows a common cross-linguistic pattern for occupational labels and is therefore transparent.

Etymology

The noun line worker comes from the image of a worker standing at a line in a factory, doing the same task again and again as items move past. So, it means 'an employee who works on an assembly line'.