work

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA ^(key): /wɜːk/
• (US) IPA ^(key): /wɝk/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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Verb

Plain form work

Third-person singular works

Past tense worked

Past participle worked

Present participle working

1. (intransitive) If you work, you do a job, usually for money.

   My father works at Microsoft.

   I got to work at 7:30 each morning.

2. (intransitive) If you work you are doing something that needs effort.

   I worked on my school paper all night long.

3. (intransitive) If somethings works it has done what it was supposed to do.

   If my computer didn't work I couldn't type this.

   I'm glad our plan worked.

4. (intransitive) How something works is how it does what it does.

   I would like to know more about how cars work.

   The rules here just do not work that way.

Related words

• worker

Noun

Singular work

Plural works

1. (uncountable) Your work is your job.
2. (uncountable) Work is effort it takes to do something. That is, its what makes you tired when you do something hard.

   Moving heavy logs takes a lot of work.

3. (uncountable); (physics) Work is force through a distance (force times distance). This is how much energy you used to move something.
4. (countable) A work is the product of something, the result of working on it. That is, its something someone has made.

   The painting was a great work of art.

   Shakespeare wrote many literary works.

Related words

• worker