work
noun · verb
Simple meaning
to do tasks or a job, often to earn money
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
wurkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈwɝk
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
uncountable
Employment.
The place where one is employed.
Labour, occupation, job.
by extension
One's employer.
Effort expended on a particular task.
Sustained effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result.
verb
Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business) [with in or at].
intransitive
To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.
Said of one's job title [with as].
Operate in a certain place, area, or specialty
Said of a company or individual who employs [with for].
General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients [with with].
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Operate in a certain place, area, or specialty
Used this way, work is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use work
- “I will work hard to improve my grades.”verb
- “He is working his servants hard.”verb
- “The voting process doesn't work as well as people thought.”verb
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Buildings for carrying on industrial labor.
A mine or quarry that is being or has been worked.
A person who works at a specific occupation.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A horizontal board that provides a supported surface for manual work.
Clothing worn for doing manual labor.
Clothing worn for doing manual labor.
Heavy-duty shirts worn for manual or physical work.
An educational plan in which students alternate between paid employment and formal study.
An animal trained for and used for heavy labor.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A place where work is done.
Progress (or rate of progress) in work being done.
Work that a person is expected to do in a specified time.
Space allocated for your work (as in an office).
A day on which work is done.
Heavy-duty clothes for manual or physical work.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “work” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.