work
/wɜːk/noun, verb
work is spelled W-O-R-K. The wrong spelling people search most is wrok: about 430 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 78 of all searches for the word. Work is a noun meaning “Labour, occupation, job”. The plural of work is works.
How many letters and syllables are in work?
| Letters | 4: W-O-R-K |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 912 times per million words; the 117th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, wrok, about 430 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell work?
Work is spelled W-O-R-K. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 66 of the searches for work in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is work?
Work appears 912 times per million words in written English, the 117th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce work?
- /wɜː(ɹ)k/
- UK /wɜːk/
- UK [wəːk]
Work has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-work.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-work.wav, En-us-work.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with work
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: werk.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of work
- works plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- wuhk
- wuk
- werk
- werq
- working participle, present
- worked participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does work mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Labour, occupation, job.
My work involves a lot of travel.
- 2
The place where one is employed.
He hasn’t come home yet; he’s still at work.
- 3
One's employer.
I want to go to the reunion concert, but I'm not sure if my work will give me the time off.
- 4
datedA factory; a works.
- 5
Effort expended on a particular task.
Holding a brick over your head is hard work. It takes a lot of work to write a dictionary.
- 6
Sustained effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result.
We know what we must do. Let's go to work.
- 7
Something on which effort is expended.
There's lots of work waiting for me at the office.
- 8
Cosmetic surgery.
has had a lot of work done
verb
- 1
To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.
He's working in a bar.
- 2
Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business) [with in or at].
I work in a national park.
- 3
Said of one's job title [with as].
I work as a cleaner.
- 4
Said of a company or individual who employs [with for].
She works for Microsoft.
- 5
General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients [with with].
I work closely with my Canadian counterparts.
- 6
To be employed or operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.
She works the night clubs.
- 7
To be employed or operate in, through, or by means of.
She's working the phones.
- 8
To behave in a certain way when handled
This dough does not work easily.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate work?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of work: wk, wk..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Work in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | travail, [6] ^((please verify)) œuvre, [6] ^((please verify)) création , travailler, bosser , opérer |
| German | Arbeit , arbeiten , Werk , funktionieren, wirken |
| Portuguese | trabalho, emprego , trabalhar , funcionar , obra , operar |
| Spanish | trabajo, curro, laburo, chamba, cheje, trabajal |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does work come from?
From Middle English work, werk, from Old English weorc, from Proto-West Germanic *werk, from Proto-Germanic *werką (“work”), from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom (“work”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to make”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).