noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A social worker who helps to coordinate a patient's care and their social welfare, finances, career, etc. UK
2. 2
   A childcare worker who monitors a child's development and participation in activities and discusses these with the child's parents or carer. UK
3. 3
   A worker in any industry who is considered indispensable and expected not to strike. UK

Etymology

From key + worker.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.