- 1a piece of work that someone has to do, especially a hard or unpleasant one to perform/carry out/complete/undertake a task a daunting/an impossible/a formidable/an unenviable, etc. task a thankless task (= an unpleasant one that nobody wants to do and nobody thanks you for doing) Our first task is to set up a communications system. Detectives are now faced with the task of identifying the body. Getting hold of this information was no easy task (= was difficult). It was my task to wake everyone up in the morning.
- 2an activity that is designed to help achieve a particular learning goal, especially in language teaching task-based learning Thesaurustask
- duties
- mission
- job
- chore
- task a piece of work that someone has to do, especially a difficult or unpleasant one:Our first task is to set up a communications system.
- duties tasks that are part of your job:Your duties include data entry and record keeping.
- mission an important official job that a person or group of people is given to do, especially when they are sent to another country:They went on a fact-finding mission to learn more about it.
- job a piece of work that someone has to do:I've got various jobs around the house.
- A task may be more difficult than a job and require you to think carefully about how you are going to do it. A job may be something small that is one of several things that you have to do, especially in the home; or a job can be something that takes a long time and is boring and/or needs a lot of patience.
- chore a task that you have to do regularly, especially one that you do in the home and find unpleasant or boring:household chores
- the task/mission/job/chore of (doing) something
- (a) daily/day-to-day task/duties/job/chore
- (a) routine task/duties/mission/job/chore
- a/an easy/difficult task/mission/job/chore
- (a) household/domestic task/duties/job/chore
- to do a task/a job/the chores
- to finish a task/a mission/a job/the chores
- to give somebody a task/their duties/a mission/a job/a chore
to criticize someone strongly for something they have done The local newspaper has been taking the city council to task over its transportation policy.
Check pronunciation: task