task
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A piece of work done as part of one's duties.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
taskIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtæsk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A piece of work done as part of one's duties.
Any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted
A specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or for a specific fee
Any piece of work done.
A difficult or tedious undertaking.
A single action undertaken by a given agent.
verb
transitive
To oppress with severe or excessive burdens; to tax
transitive
To charge, as with a fault.
transitive
To assign a task to, or impose a task on.
“I tasked him with looking after the children.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A piece of work done as part of one's duties.
Used this way, task is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in ethics or values contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Ethics/values
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A temporary military unit formed to accomplish a particular objective.
Censure severely or angrily.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.