task

A2 Topic:Work & Careers

US /task/ UK /tɑːsk/ See IPA manual

Freq #2679

Meanings

1

noun
A piece of work that you have to do.

Washing the dishes is my least favourite daily task.
2

noun
A difficult or tiring job.

Cleaning the whole house in one day was quite a task.
3

verb
To give someone a job or duty to do.

On my first day, I was tasked with sorting a huge pile of papers.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

2 noun · a difficult or tiring job. undertaking

More chore goal job objective

Word family

Forms taskedtaskingtasks

Derived forms multi-taskmultitaskmultitaskingsubtasksupertasktask-forcetask-negativetask-orientedtask-positivetask-specifictaskabletaskbar

Etymology

From Middle English taske (“task, tax”), from Old Northern French tasque, (compare Old French variant tasche), from Medieval Latin tasca, alteration of taxa, from Latin taxō (“to censure; to charge”). Doublet of tax.

*teh₂g- Proto-Indo-European taske Middle English tasque fro-nor tasca la-med taxō Latin

View etymology graph ->

External links

# task

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A2
**Part of speech:** noun, verb
**IPA (US):** /task/
**IPA (UK):** /tɑːsk/
**Frequency rank:** 2679

## Meanings
1. A piece of work that you have to do.
2. A difficult or tiring job.
3. To give someone a job or duty to do.

## Examples
- Washing the dishes is my least favourite daily task.
- Cleaning the whole house in one day was quite a task.
- On my first day, I was tasked with sorting a huge pile of papers.

## Synonyms
- chore
- goal
- job
- objective

## Derived Forms
- multi-task
- multitask
- multitasking
- subtask
- supertask
- task-force
- task-negative
- task-oriented
- task-positive
- task-specific
- taskable
- taskbar

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *teh₂g-
- Root: taske
- Root: tasque
- Root: tasca
- Root: taxō

## Etymology
From Middle English taske (“task, tax”), from Old Northern French tasque, (compare Old French variant tasche), from Medieval Latin tasca, alteration of taxa, from Latin taxō (“to censure; to charge”). Doublet of tax.

## AI Etymology
Task is from Middle English taske (“task, tax”), from Old Northern French tasque, (compare Old French variant tasche), from Medieval Latin tasca, alteration of taxa, from Latin taxō (“to censure; to charge”). Doublet of tax. In present-day use, it can mean a piece of work that you have to do, or a difficult or tiring job. Derived formations include multi-task, multitask, multitasking, subtask, supertask.

## Topics
- Work & Careers

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task

Meanings

Thesaurus

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