task

A particular job or piece of work that someone needs to do.

• My first task is to wash the dishes.
• We finished all our tasks before lunch.
• Who will handle this task?

How to use it: task of doing something (She has the task of checking the tickets.)

Similar words: job, assignment

Common phrases: complete a task, daily task, task for someone, assign a task

A large or difficult job that takes considerable time or effort.

• Cleaning this whole house is quite a task.
• They faced the enormous task of moving the library.
• Persuading her proved a harder task than we expected.

How to use it: task of doing something (They faced the task of rebuilding the village.)

Similar words: challenge, undertaking

Common phrases: a huge task, a daunting task, quite a task

In “take someone to task,” it means to criticize someone strongly for doing something wrong.

• The boss took me to task for being late.
• Several newspapers have taken the mayor to task.
• She takes careless workers to task.

How to use it: take someone to task for something (The teacher took him to task for his rude comments.)

Common phrases: take to task, take someone to task

To give someone a particular job to do.

• They tasked me with checking the figures.
• The team was tasked with finding a solution.
• Who will task the new staff with training volunteers?

How to use it: task someone with doing something (We tasked the students with designing a poster.)

Similar words: assign, charge

Common phrases: task someone with something, task a team, task a committee