Co-worker or coworker?
co-worker is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of coworker”; coworker is a noun meaning “Somebody with whom one works”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. co-worker is written with a hyphen and coworker as one word; they are used differently.
What is the difference between co-worker and coworker?
| co-worker | coworker | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | Alternative spelling of coworker | Somebody with whom one works |
| Example | none recorded | He heard from a coworker that the company planned to merge those departments |
| Forms | co-workers | coworkers |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˌkəʊˈwɜː.kər/ /ˌkoʊˈwɝː.kɚ/ |
| In writing | not counted (the list counts single words) | 1.9 times per million words |
Sources: co-worker and coworker in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of co-worker and coworker
co-worker
- 1
Alternative spelling of coworker
coworker
- 1
Somebody with whom one works
He heard from a coworker that the company planned to merge those departments
- 2
derogatoryA person in the lowest common denominator, especially regarding popular culture
This is the most coworker movie I've ever seen
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, co-worker or coworker?
co-worker is a phrase, which the list of single words does not count; coworker 1.9 times per million words.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search co-worker vs coworker?
“co-worker vs coworker” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“coworker vs co-worker”, “co-worker or coworker”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.