工人 (gōng rén) literally combines 工 (gōng), meaning 'work' or 'craft', and 人 (rén), meaning 'person'. Together, it means 'worker' — a person who performs manual, industrial, or skilled labor, especially in factories, construction, or manufacturing. It is a neutral, formal term commonly used in official contexts, news reports, and everyday speech to refer to blue-collar or production-line employees.

Unlike more general terms like 人员 (rén yuán, 'staff') or 职员 (zhí yuán, 'office worker'), 工人 specifically emphasizes physical or technical labor rather than administrative or professional roles. It can refer to both skilled tradespeople (e.g., welders, electricians) and unskilled laborers. Historically, it carried strong sociopolitical connotations in modern Chinese discourse, but today it is widely used descriptively without ideological weight in most contexts.