task

American  

[task, tahsk] / tæsk, tɑsk /

noun

• tasks
  plural

1. a definite piece of work assigned to, falling to, or expected of a person; duty.

   Synonyms:

   assignment, job

2. any piece of work.

   Synonyms:

   assignment, job

3. a matter of considerable labor or difficulty.

4. Obsolete. a tax or impost.

---

verb (used with object)

• tasks,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tasked,
  past participle,  past
• tasking
  present participle

1. to subject to severe or excessive labor or exertion; put a strain upon (powers, resources, etc.).

2. to impose a task on.

3. Obsolete. to tax.

adjective

1. of or relating to a task or tasks.

   A task chart will help organize the department's work.

idioms

1. take to task, to call to account; blame; censure.

   The teacher took them to task for not doing their homework.

task British  

/ tɑːsk /

noun

1. a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or chore

2. an unpleasant or difficult job or duty

3. any piece of work

4. to criticize or reprove

---

verb

1. to assign a task to

2. to subject to severe strain; tax

task More Idioms  

1. see take to task.

---

Synonym Usage

Task, chore, job, assignment refer to a definite and specific instance or act of work. Task and chore and, to a lesser extent, job often imply work that is tiresome, arduous, or otherwise unpleasant. Task usually refers to a clearly defined piece of work, sometimes of short or limited duration, assigned to or expected of a person: the task of pacifying angry customers; a difficult, time-consuming task. A chore is a minor task, usually one of several performed as part of a routine, as in farming, and often more tedious than difficult: the daily chore of taking out the garbage; early morning chores of feeding the livestock. Job is the most general of these terms, referring to almost any work or responsibility, including a person's means of earning a living: the job of washing the windows; a well-paying job in advertising. Assignment refers to a specific task allocated to a person by someone in a position of authority: a homework assignment; a reporter's assignment to cover international news.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• subtask
  noun
• tasker
  noun
• taskless
  adjective
• untasked
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tasks
  plural

Participles

• tasking
  present
• tasked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• task
  simple
• tasks
  simple
• have tasked
  perfect
• has tasked
  perfect
• am tasking
  progressive
• are tasking
  progressive
• is tasking
  progressive
• have been tasking
  perfect progressive
• has been tasking
  perfect progressive

Past

• tasked
  simple
• had tasked
  perfect
• was tasking
  progressive
• were tasking
  progressive
• had been tasking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will task
  simple
• will have tasked
  perfect
• will be tasking
  progressive
• will have been tasking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of task

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English noun, from Medieval Latin tasca, variant of taxa tax ( def. )

Explanation

A task can be big or small, easy or really hard — but it's never more than a job that needs to get done. Chop chop! There's a task that needs completing, and you're just the person for the job. If you're smart though, you'll figure out a way to task someone else with it, or assign it elsewhere. Task comes to us all the way from the Latin word taxare, which in its earliest days meant "to impose a tax on." So much like the filling out of your tax forms, most tasks are considered chores.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

task tasks tasked tasking

Importantly, you should master each task or level of difficulty before advancing.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026

“The HSI task force has been disjointed and disorganized,” Teirab wrote.

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

But give it a complex task, and even AI suffers from self-doubt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has no easy task following Pep Guardiola's impressive 10-year act.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

The gravity of the task may help me hold my tongue as the verse commands.

From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda

With DoorDash for the coffee run and AI to answer the phone, there is little reason to bring in college kids unless they can pull their weight on meaningful tasks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

With hiring managers prioritizing in-person work and AI able to tackle routine tasks that traditionally monopolized entry-level workers’ time, one could argue being agreeable is paramount.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

Using ChatGPT or Claude today for tasks such as analyzing legal documents or going through your email inbox means sharing sensitive data with the company servers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

Despite largely controlling the tasks and pay, the platforms typically classify the workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

Few married women worked outside the home, but their days were full of tasks every bit as necessary as their husbands’ to keep the family afloat.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield

Google DeepMind was tasked with accelerating the company’s AI progress.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

After the ruling, the Elysee said Macron had tasked Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu with working on a new "legally robust draft" of the legislation.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

NHS England, which was tasked with implementing report recommendations, said it had worked to "improve outcomes for patients", but surgeons and campaigners believe progress has been slow.

From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026

In a sign of Rezaei’s new power, Khamenei also appointed him as his personal representative on the Supreme National Security Council, the body tasked with deciding the most important military and diplomatic matters.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

John Kikulski, a rousing speaker much beloved in the Polish community, was tasked with energizing the eastern Europeans.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield

The U.S. military is using nonstandard contracts and tasking defense contractors to design new weapons from scratch to cut years of production time and hundreds of millions of dollars off their cost.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

Manchester United confirmed Michael Carrick as interim manager until the end of the season on Tuesday, tasking him with leading the Red Devils back into the Champions League.

From Barron's ● Jan. 13, 2026

Google is acquiring Intersect’s workforce and gigawatts of active joint projects, while tasking the company with developing new technologies to expand the energy supply for U.S. data centers.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 22, 2025

It is claimed Mr Roussev received tasking from abroad by a person known as Jan Marsalek, whom all the defendants are accused of being in a conspiracy with.

From BBC ● Feb. 28, 2024

I never took so serious a view of so commonplace an unpleasantness, as to dream of tasking your kindness so severely.

From Checkmate by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Related Words

• assignment
• burden
• business
• duty
• effort
• exercise
• function
• project
• responsibility
• undertaking
• work