Task

How to spell task

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce task

What does task mean?

1. nounA piece of work to be done, especially one that is assigned or has a clear goal.
2. verbTo assign a piece of work to someone, or to make heavy demands on something.

Task in a sentence

• noun

  The first task on her list was to reconcile the monthly accounts.

• verb

  The manager will task the new hire with updating the client records.

• noun

  Sorting the warehouse inventory proved to be a tedious task.

• verb

  Long commutes can task a driver's patience after a hard week.

Where does task come from?

Language of origin: French

Task came into English in the 1200s from Old North French tasque, a regional form of Old French tasche, meaning a duty or piece of work imposed on someone. That word descended from the Medieval Latin tasca, which was itself an altered form of taxa, a noun built on the Latin verb taxare, meaning 'to assess, evaluate, or charge'. The earliest sense was strongly tied to obligation: a task was work demanded by a lord or employer, often with a fixed payment attached, which is why taxare also gave English the word 'tax'. Over time the sense softened from an imposed levy of labour to any defined job a person sets out to do. The short, blunt spelling has stayed remarkably stable, and because it is spelled exactly as it sounds it rarely causes trouble for writers.

How the word is built

• task (a single piece of work to be done; from Old French tasche)