work
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: wûrk
ipa: /wɜː(ɹ)k/
ipa: /wɜːk/
ipa: [wəːk]
ipa: [wəːk]
ipa: [wœːk]
note: Broad Geordie
ipa: [wɔːk]
note: Liverpool
ipa: [wɛːk]
ipa: /wɚːk/
note: Dublin
ipa: [wʊːɹk]
ipa: /wɝk/
ipa: [wɚk]
ipa: /wɜɪ̯k/
ipa: /wɵːk/
ipa: /wøːk/
ipa: [wɚːk]
ipa: [wəɹk]
note: Indic, rhotic
ipa: /wərk/
note: backing after W
ipa: /(w)ɵrk/
note: Indic, non-rhotic
ipa: /wɜ(r)k/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)k
Forms: form: works
form: werke
form: worke
form: wuk
form: werk
form: werq
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-om
Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom
Proto-Germanic *werką
Proto-West Germanic *werk
Old English weorc
Middle English werk
English work
From Middle English work, werk, from Old English weorc, from Proto-West Germanic *werk, from Proto-Germanic *werką, from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom.
Akin to Scots wark, Saterland Frisian Wierk, West Frisian wurk, Dutch werk, German Werk, German Low German Wark, Danish værk, Norwegian Bokmål verk, Norwegian Nynorsk verk, Swedish verk, yrke and orka, Icelandic verk, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌺𐌹 (gawaurki), Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”) (from ϝέργον (wérgon)), Avestan 𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰 (vər^əz, “to work, to perform”), Armenian գործ (gorc, “work”), Albanian argëtoj (“entertain, reward, please”), Russian варганить (varganitʹ, “"to whip up, to cook something quickly, to throw together"”). English cognates include bulwark, boulevard, energy, erg, georgic, liturgy, metallurgy, organ, surgeon, wright. Doublet of erg and ergon.
Senses: examples: text: My work involves a lot of travel.
text: Come on Neriſſa, I haue worke in hand / That you yet know not of; wee'll ſee our husbands / Before they thinke of vs?
ref: c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 177, column 1:
text: And in euery worke that he began[…]he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Chronicles 31:21:
text: Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew’s cap and bells.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 257:
glosses: Employment.
Labour, occupation, job.
synonyms: word: work
word: job
word: occupation
word: employment
examples: text: He hasn’t come home yet; he’s still at work.
glosses: Employment.
The place where one is employed.
examples: text: I want to go to the reunion concert, but I'm not sure if my work will give me the time off.
glosses: Employment.
One's employer.
examples: text: In trials of a Martin furnace in a steel work at Remscheiden, Germany, a lining of zirconia was found in good condition after […]
ref: 1917, Platers' Guide, page 246:
glosses: Employment.
A factory; a works.
examples: text: Holding a brick over your head is hard work. It takes a lot of work to write a dictionary.
glosses: Effort.
Effort expended on a particular task.
examples: text: We know what we must do. Let's go to work.
text: We don't have much time. Let's get to work piling up those sandbags.
text: The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
ref: 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 01:
glosses: Effort.
Sustained effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result.
examples: text: There's lots of work waiting for me at the office.
glosses: Effort.
Something on which effort is expended.
examples: text: has had a lot of work done
text: Luckily, our eyes have grown accustomed after decades of Botox, fillers and extreme “work” going mainstream, so we don’t notice the weirdness and read it instead as maximum hotness. Thank you, progress!
ref: 2025 May 20, Marina Hyde, “Was this a hen do or a humanitarian mission to liberate Paris? Either way, give Lauren Sánchez an award”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
glosses: Effort.
Something on which effort is expended.
Cosmetic surgery.
examples: text: has been putting in work
glosses: Effort.
Something on which effort is expended.
Prison gang violence.
examples: text: Work is done against friction to drag a bag along the ground.
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: Effort.
A measure of energy expended in moving an object; most commonly, force times distance. No work is done if the object does not move.
examples: text: Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning "vortex", and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.
ref: 2013 July-August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist:
topics: natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: Effort.
A measure of energy that is usefully extracted from a process: applied productively.
examples: text: There's a lot of guesswork involved.
glosses: Product; the result of effort.
The result of a particular manner of production.
examples: text: We've got some paperwork to do before we can get started. The piece was decorated with intricate filigree work.
glosses: Product; the result of effort.
Something produced using the specified material or tool.
examples: text: It is a work of art.
text: the poetic works of Alexander Pope
text: To leaue no Rubs nor Botches in the Worke:
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 140, column 2:
text: The haſty multitude / Admiring enter'd, and the work ſome praiſe / And ſome the Architect:
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 730–732:
text: “[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?[…]”
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: Product; the result of effort.
A literary, artistic, or intellectual production; a creative work.
synonyms: word: content
word: creative work
word: opus
word: piece
examples: text: William the Conqueror fortified many castles, throwing up new ramparts, bastions and all manner of works.
glosses: Product; the result of effort.
A fortification.
topics: government
hobbies
lifestyle
martial-arts
military
politics
professional-wrestling
sports
war
wrestling
glosses: The staging of events to appear as real.
topics: business
mining
glosses: Ore before it is dressed.
examples: text: Tell me you're using clean works at least.
text: He gave me a sour look. “All right is it? Well, you shoot some then.” I cooked up a grain and got out my works ready to take the shot.
ref: 1977 [1953], William S. Burroughs, edited by Allen Ginsberg, Junky, Penguin Books, →ISBN, pages 25–26:
text: If you buy new works, clean them before using them. If you share works, clean them before you or the next person uses them. Blood may be in your works even if you can't see it. Clean your works either with rubbing alcohol (available in drugstores), a household bleach solution (three tablespoons of bleach in a cup of water), or boiling water.
ref: 1996, Paul Harding Douglas with Laura Pinsky, The Essential AIDS Fact Book, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 25:
text: While in San Francisco, where the AIDS crisis was particularly devastating, they saw numerous public awareness signs reading “Bleach Your Works” posted around the city, urging IV drug users to clean their needles with bleach to help staunch the spread of the disease.
ref: 2009, Gillian G. Gaar, The Rough Guide to Nirvana, Rough Guides UK, →ISBN:
glosses: The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.)
examples: text: All told, werk is about creativity, virtuosity, and a certain kind of mastery.
ref: 2018 April 17, madison moore, Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 27:
text: If the voice coming out of my body is legibly male, it complicates my presence. The work starts to approach that mysterious state of werq.
ref: 2022 January 25, Monique Jenkinson, Faux Queen: A Life in Drag, Bywater Books, →ISBN:
qualifier: LGBTQ slang
glosses: The confident attitude of a drag queen.
Synonyms: word: effort
word: exertion
word: pains
word: wark
word: work
Hypernyms: word: activity
Hyponyms: word: drudgery
word: labor
word: moil
word: toil
Derived terms: Abraham work
Abram work
adzework
aerial work platform
after-work
all in a day's work
allwork
all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
antiwork
artwork
attorney's work product
at work
a woman's work is never done
back-to-work order
backwork
badgework
bagwork
bandwork
Bantam work
basket work
basketwork
basket-work
basswork
beadwork
bedwork
bell work
benchwork
Berlin work
bitchwork
blackwork
bladework
blockwork
bloodwork
blood work
blotchwork
blue-collar work
bobbinwork
body of work
bodywork
bonework
bookwork
borderwork
botchwork
Bowenwork
boxwork
braidwork
brainwork
branchwork
brasswork
brassworks
breastwork
breast-work
bridgework
brightwork
brushwork
buhl work
buhlwork
bushwork
busywork
busy-work
busy work
bywork
cagework
candleworks
canework
carework
casework
castle-work
catchwork
chainwork
chairwork
chamber-work
charmwork
charm-work
charm work
checkerwork
checkwork
chequerwork
chordwork
churchwork
classwork
clincher-work
clinker-work
clockwork
close enough for government work
coachwork
cobwork
codework
cofferwork
cold work
coldwork
collar-work
colorwork
community work
completed staff work
copperwork
cornicework
counterwork
coursework
course work
craftwork
creative work
crewelwork
cribwork
crowd work
crowdwork
crownwork
cutwork
cut work
day-work
daywork
day work
deadwork
deedwork
derivative work
desk work
deskwork
detached work
detective work
diaperwork
differential piece work
dimension work
dirty work
do a lot of work
donkey-work
donkey work
donkeywork
do the work
drainwork
dreamwork
drudgework
ductwork
dyework
dyeworks
earshell work
earthenwork
earthwork
earwork
edgework
elevating work platform
enamelwork
endwork
equal pay for equal work
facework
falsework
fancywork
fanwork
farm work
farmwork
featherwork
feltwork
field work
fieldwork
figurework
filmwork
find work
fingerwork
finger work
firework
fireworks
flamework
flatwork
floorwork
fluework
flushwork
flutework
footwork
formwork
framework
fretwork
frillwork
frostwork
functional work
gardenwork
gaswork
gasworks
gatchwork
gearwork
gemwork
get work done
ghost work
gig work
gingerbread work
glasswork
glassworks
glass-works
glovework
God's work
goldwork
good enough for government work
good work
good works
go to work
graphwork
gridwork
griefwork
grillework
grillwork
grottowork
groundwork
groupwork
gruntwork
grunt work
guesswork
guitarwork
gunwork
gutterwork
hackwork
hairwork
handiwork
handwork
handywork
hard at work
hard work
hatchwork
have one's work cut out
have one's work cut out for one
have work done
headwork
heelwork
Hellerwork
homework
honeycomb work
hornwork
hot work
housework
icework
inkwork
inside work
interwork
inwork
ironwork
ironworks
job of work
journeywork
keywork
knifework
knitwork
knowledge work
lab work
lacework
laceworks
lacquerwork
lacwork
lampwork
lapwork
latticework
leadwork
leafwork
leatherwork
leatherworks
leg work
legwork
life's work
lifework
lightwork
line of work
linework
lockwork
Looyenwork
lump work
maid-of-all-work
make hard work of
make light work of
make quick work of
make short work of
make-work
manual work
many hands make light work
mapwork
marblework
mask work
masterwork
mazework
meshwork
metalwork
metalworks
microwork
millwork
millworks
minework
mirrorwork
miswork
mobile elevated work platform
mobile elevating work platform
mousework
narrow work
nearwork
neatwork
needlework
network
nice work if you can get it
night work
nightwork
nonwork
non-work
nulled work
numberwork
office work
open-work
openwork
orphaned work
orphan work
out of work
out-of-work
outside work
outwork
overwork
padwork
paintwork
pairwork
panelwork
paperwork
partwork
passagework
patchwork
peacework
peace work
pencilwork
penwork
picqué work
piece of work
piece-work
piece work
piecework
pilework
pink-collar work
pipework
pitchwork
plain work
plasterwork
playwork
plotwork
pointework
pointwork
pokerwork
police work
policework
postwork
prework
primary work
proof of work
proudwork
public works
punchwork
put in the work
put to work
quickwork
quillwork
rackwork
ragwork
rangework
redwork
reedwork
reference work
remote work
resist work
right to work
ringwork
roadwork
road work
rockwork
rootwork
ropework
rotework
roughwork
rubbed work
rubblework
runework
rustic-work
Sabrina work
sale of work
salework
saltwork
saltworks
sank work
sawnwork
scalework
scarletwork
schoolwork
scratchwork
screenwork
scrollwork
scutwork
scut work
seatwork
secondary work
set to work
sex work
shadow work
sheetwork
shellwork
shift work
shiftwork
shitwork
shopwork
show one's work
sidework
siegework
silkwork
silverwork
Sindhwork
sleuthwork
slopwork
smelting works
smithwork
soapworks
social work
Sorrento work
soundwork
sourcework
space work
spadework
spatterwork
spearwork
speedwork
spell-work
spellwork
spell work
spindlework
splatterwork
splintwork
splitwork
spritework
spywork
stairwork
steelwork
steelworks
stencil work
stepwork
stickwork
stitchwork
stockwork
stonework
stoop work
stop-work
strapwork
stream-work
streamwork
streamworks
stream-works
streetwork
strike work
stroke of work
stuccowork
studwork
stumpwork
stuntwork
summer-work
swash-work
swordwork
tabernacle work
tablework
tap of work
task-work
taskwork
teamwork
telework
tertiary work
the devil makes work for idle hands
idle hands make work for the Devil
idle hands make work for the devil
the Devil finds work for idle hands
the devil finds work for idle hands
the Devil makes work for idle hands
the Lord's work
thirsty work
threadwork
tilework
timberwork
time work
time-work
timework
tinwork
tongue-work
topwork
torchwork
trackwork
tradework
trancework
trellis-work
trellis work
trelliswork
trenchwork
trestlework
trimwork
trusswork
truss-work
try-work
try work
trywork
tubework
Tula work
tut-work
undeclared work
underwork
unwork
upperworks
vasework
veinwork
velvet work
voicework
voluntary work
wagework
wand work
wand-work
wandwork
war work
waterwork
waterworks
water works
wattlework
waxwork
webwork
weisure
welfare-to-work
westwork
wetwork
wet work
wheelwork
white-collar work
whitework
wickerwork
wicker-work
wifework
wirework
women's work
wonderwork
woodwork
woolwork
woolworks
workability
workable
workaday
work-a-day
workaholic
workalcoholic
workalike
workamping
workaround
workathon
work-athon
workbag
workbasket
workbench
workboard
workboat
workbook
workboot
work bowl
workbox
workcamp
work-camp
work camp
workcamper
workcation
work day
workday
work dog
work envelope
work environment
workery
work ethic
work experience
workface
workfare
work farm
workfellow
workflow
workfolk
work force
workforce
workfree
work front
workful
work function
workgang
workgirl
workglove
workgroup
workhand
work hardening
work history
workhome
workhorse
workhour
workhouse
work house
work husband
workie
work in process
work-in-process
work in progress
work-in-progress
work-intensive
workish
workiversary
workless
worklet
work life
work-life
work-life balance
worklike
workling
worklist
workload
worklog
workloom
workly
workman
work management
work marriage
workmaster
work-master
workmate
work-mistress
workmistress
workname
worknight
work of art
work of fiction
work of necessity
work order
workout
workover
workpan
workpants
workpaper
work party
workpeople
work permit
workperson
workphobia
workphobic
workpiece
workplace
work placement
work platform
workprint
work product
work rage
workrate
work release
workroom
work rule
works
work-safe
workscreen
workseeker
work shadowing
workshare
workshed
worksheet
workshift
work shift
workship
workshirt
workshoe
workshop
workshy
worksite
worksome
worksona
worksong
work song
workspace
work spouse
workstand
work station
workstation
workstead
workstock
workstone
work-stone
workstrand
workstream
work-study
workstyle
worksurface
work-table
worktable
worktext
work time
worktime
worktool
work-tool
worktop
work-to-rule
work train
work triangle
work unit
workup
work-up
workwear
workweek
work wife
workwise
workwoman
workword
workworn
worky
workyard
work zone
wristwork
yardwork
yeoman's work
youth work
Related terms: sense: product (combining form)
word: -ing
word: instrument
word: occupation