What does work mean?
Work names both paid employment and the broader activity of exerting effort. In everyday use, it commonly means a job or the place where one is employed. It can also refer to a particular task, the product of creative or practical effort, or a body of artistic works. As a verb, work means to perform a job, to exert oneself, or to function or operate. A machine may work, a plan may work, and a person may work a problem until it is solved. The word often implies sustained, purposeful effort, so it can sound more serious than the broader word activity. In compounds such as hard work, homework, and workplace, work shifts toward the domain of employment or organized labor. Because it covers so many related concepts, its meaning depends heavily on context and whether it functions as a noun, verb, or modifier.
The activity of performing a job, exerting effort, or producing something; also employment itself, a task, or a creative product.
"The restoration required years of careful work."
The noun is both countable and uncountable. A work can denote an individual creation, and works can denote a complete body of artistic output.
To perform a job, exert effort toward a goal, function successfully, or bring something about gradually.
"The engineers worked closely to solve the technical problem."
The verb may be intransitive or transitive. In a transitive construction, work can take a person or thing as its object, as in “worked the problem” or “worked the land.”
Relating to work, employment, or the workplace.
"The company renewed his work permit."
This use is attributive and normally precedes a noun; it is uncommon in predicative position.
Works is the regular plural of the countable noun. It can also refer collectively to a person's complete body of artistic, literary, or musical creations.
"Her works explore memory, migration, and family history."
The verb work hides an irregular relative in its past participle: wrought sounds nothing like the word from which it came.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does work come from?
Work descends from Old English weorc, used for labor, service, and the product of activity. Old English weorc continued Proto-Germanic *werka-, which is generally traced to the Proto-Indo-European root *werg-, meaning “to work.” The same Germanic root also underlies related forms in languages including German and Dutch, while English developed the irregular past participle wrought from the same historical word.
Related word forms
How work is actually used
The word is broad and neutral in most contexts, though it can suggest purposeful effort, productivity, or employment depending on the construction. The noun is commonly used both countably and uncountably: a work can be a completed creation, while works can refer to an author's entire output. As a modifier, work normally appears before a noun, as in work permit or work clothes.
Easily confused with work
A word is a written or spoken unit of language, whereas work refers to an activity, job, effort, or product.
Wrought is the irregular past participle of the verb work, especially in phrases such as wrought iron, while worked is the ordinary past tense and participle.