# work

> English word · Noun · IPA /wɜː(ɹ)k/ · frequency rank #116

## Definitions
1. Employment.
2. Employment.
3. Employment.
4. Employment.
5. Effort.
6. Effort.
7. Effort.
8. Effort.
9. Effort.
10. Effort.
11. Effort.
12. Product; the result of effort.
13. Product; the result of effort.
14. Product; the result of effort.
15. Product; the result of effort.
16. The staging of events to appear as real.
17. Ore before it is dressed.
18. The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.)
19. The confident attitude of a drag queen.

## Etymology
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *werǵ-
Proto-Indo-European *-om
Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom
Proto-Germanic *werką
Proto-West Germanic *werk
Old English weorc
Middle English werk
English work
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”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots wark (“work”), North Frisian werk (“work”), Saterland Frisian Wierk (“work”), West Frisian wurk (“work”), Dutch werk (“work”), German Werk (“work”), German Low German Wark (“work”), Luxembourgish Wierk (“work”), Danish værk (“work”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish verk (“work”); also Breton ober (“to do, make”), Cornish gul, gwul (“to do, make”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic fearg (“anger”), Manx ferg (“anger”), Pictish ᚒᚏᚏᚐᚉᚈ (urract, “he made”), Welsh gwneud, neud (“to do, make”), Greek έργο (érgo, “work”), Albanian argëtim (“entertainment; fun, pleasure”), argëtoj (“to amuse, entertain”), Lithuanian váržas (“fish snaring net”), Macedonian врша (vrša, “fish-trap”), Polish wiersza (“fish-trap”), Russian and Ukrainian ве́рша (vérša, “fish-trap”), Serbo-Croatian вр̑ша, vȓša (“fish-trap”), Slovak and Slovene vrša (“fish-trap”), Aghwan 𐔱𐕒𐕙𐔵 (borz, “labour, work”), Armenian գործ (gorc, “work”), Northern Kurdish werz (“bed, field, patch; season”), Avestan 𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰 (vər^əz, “to do, work”), Persian ورز (varz, “art, craft, trade”), ورزه (varze, “art, profession, trade”), ورزیدن (varzidan, “to exercise; to train; to work”), Tocharian B warkṣäl (“energy, power, strength”). English cognates include bulwark, boulevard, energy, erg, georgic, liturgy, metallurgy, organ, surgeon, wright. Doublet of erg and ergon.

## Easily confused with
- **wow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-wow)
- **wot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-wot)
- **wry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-wry)
- **worn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-worn)
- **worm** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-worm)
- **wort** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-wort)
- **wove** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-wove)
- **world** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-world)
- **works** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-works)
- **worth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-worth)
- **worst** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-worst)
- **worse** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-worse)
- **worry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-worry)
- **Worms** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-worms)
- **worked** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-worked)
- **worker** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/work-vs-worker)
- **wo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wo-vs-work)
- **war** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/war-vs-work)
- **won** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/won-vs-work)
- **woo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woo-vs-work)

## Common misspellings (6)
`owrk`, `wokr`, `workk`, `worrk`, `wrok`, `wwork`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/work