Mitarbeiter

German

Etymology

mit- +‎ Arbeiter

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪtarˌbaɪ̯tər/, [ˈmɪ.taʁˌbaɪ̯.tɐ], [-taɐ̯-], [-tɐ-] (usual)
• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪtˌarbaɪ̯tər/, [ˈmɪtˌʔaʁ.baɪ̯.tɐ] (very formal or regional)

  • Audio

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Noun

Mitarbeiter m (strong, genitive Mitarbeiters, plural Mitarbeiter, feminine Mitarbeiterin)

1. person who works, together with others, in a particular business or institution; employee
2. collaborator, person who works with others towards a common goal
3. assistant, person who assists another person in a business
4. staff member

   Dozenten und Mitarbeiter ― faculty and staff

Usage notes

• Mitarbeiter is a semantic false friend of English coworker: although it is made up of elements that mean "co-" and "worker", Mitarbeiter means something more like "employee", not quite "coworker" (which in German is Kollege): you would typically say that a Firma has several Mitarbeiter rather than that you (working at the firm) have several Mitarbeiter, whereas in English, you have coworkers at the company, the company does not normally have coworkers.

Declension

Declension of Mitarbeiter [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Mitarbeiter	die	Mitarbeiter
genitive	eines	des	Mitarbeiters	der	Mitarbeiter
dative	einem	dem	Mitarbeiter	den	Mitarbeitern
accusative	einen	den	Mitarbeiter	die	Mitarbeiter

Synonyms

• Angestellter
• Arbeitnehmer
• Firmenangehöriger

Derived terms

• Mitarbeiterführung
• Mitarbeitermotivation
• Mitarbeiterversammlung

Further reading

• “Mitarbeiter” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Mitarbeiter” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Mitarbeiter” in Duden online
• Mitarbeiter on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de