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say it: wurk
work is a verb and noun meaning "exert oneself by doing mental or physical work for a purpose or out of necessity". It is pronounced /ˈwɝk/ — wurk. It carries 34 recorded senses.
have an effect or outcome; often the one desired or expected
“The voting process doesn't work as well as people thought”
“How does your idea work in practice?”
“This method doesn't work”
“The breaks of my new car act quickly”
“The medicine works only if you take it with a lot of water”
operate in a certain place, area, or specialty
“She works the night clubs”
“The salesman works the Midwest”
“This artist works mostly in acrylics”
proceed towards a goal or along a path or through an activity
“work your way through every problem or task”
“She was working on her second martini when the guests arrived”
“Start from the bottom and work towards the top”
behave in a certain way when handled
“This dough does not work easily”
“The soft metal works well”
cause to operate or function
“This pilot works the controls”
“Can you work an electric drill?”
gratify and charm, usually in order to influence
“the political candidate worked the crowds”
make uniform
“knead dough”
“work the clay until it is soft”
find the solution to (a problem or question) or understand the meaning of
“did you solve the problem?”
“Work out your problems with the boss”
“this unpleasant situation isn't going to work itself out”
“did you get it?”
“Did you get my meaning?”
“He could not work the math problem”
go sour or spoil
“The milk has soured”
“The wine worked”
“The cream has turned--we have to throw it out”
arrive at a certain condition through repeated motion
“The stitches of the hem worked loose after she wore the skirt many times”
a product produced or accomplished through the effort or activity or agency of a person or thing
“it is not regarded as one of his more memorable works”
“the symphony was hailed as an ingenious work”
“he was indebted to the pioneering work of John Dewey”
“the work of an active imagination”
“erosion is the work of wind or water over time”
the occupation for which you are paid
“he is looking for employment”
“a lot of people are out of work”
(physics) a manifestation of energy; the transfer of energy from one physical system to another expressed as the product of a force and the distance through which it moves a body in the direction of that force
“work equals force times distance”
physics
the total output of a writer or artist (or a substantial part of it)
“he studied the entire Wagnerian oeuvre”
“Picasso's work can be divided into periods”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for work come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.