Meanings
turker1
plural turkers
- Alternative letter-case form of Turker.
Mechanical Turk is a service that from its earliest days seemed to invite shenanigans, and indeed researchers show that nearly half of its “turkers” appear to be using AI to do tasks that were specifically intended to be done by humans because AI couldn’t.
2023 June 14, Devin Coldewey, “Mechanical Turk workers are using AI to automate being human”, in TechCrunch
Turker2
plural Turkers · alternative turker
- A person who does small tasks as part of the Amazon Mechanical Turk service.
LaPlante disputes the notion that Turkers and other crowdsourcing workers are desperate folks working out of their parents basement. “Most Turkers are very educated, and they choose to do this,” she said.
2019, Steven Greenhouse, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor, Anchor, →ISBN, page 223Synonyms: Mechanical Turker
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA person who does small tasks as part of the Amazon Mechanical Turk service.
Origin
Ellipsis of Amazon Mechanical Turk + -er; the Amazon service is named for the Mechanical Turk of 1770–1854.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
turker. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turker
“turker.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turker. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “turker,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/turker.
Source: turker on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.