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# task

«task» in Mova's school dictionary: **a piece of work that someone has to do, often given by…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a task, tasks); verb (task, tasked — formal)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A task is a piece of work that someone has to do, often given by someone else. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#m1)

2) To be tasked with something is to be given a job to do (formal). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#m2)

3) «Take someone to task» means to tell them off for something they did. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In school teachers give «tasks»: «Your task is to write three sentences», «a reading task», «a maths task». Pupils learn to break a big task into small steps and check the task is finished. At home children have tasks such as feeding the pet. Phrases: «complete a task», «on task» (concentrating), «off task» (not working), «a difficult task», «task list».

### examples

- Your first task is to read the story. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#x1)
- Feeding the cat is my task every morning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#x2)
- Stay on task, please. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#x3)
- This task is harder than the last one. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#x4)
- Break a big task into smaller parts. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#x5)
- The class finished the task in ten minutes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#x6)
- Each group had a different task. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#x7)
- The third task was the hardest. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/#x8)

### note

Plural: tasks. Countable: «a task», «two tasks». «Task» is more formal than «job» or «chore». In maths problems, if 4 children share 12 tasks equally, each does 12 ÷ 4 = 3.

### In the corpora

- [Burnout means being worn down by too much work and stress for too long, until even small tasks feel huge.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/4-when-work-goes-wrong/15/)
- [Some tasks are moving to AI, new jobs appear too, and experts disagree on how much will change.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/21-news-deepfakes-history/3/)
- [Some jobs are changing as AI does some tasks, new jobs appear too, and experts disagree about how much will change.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/ai/21-news-deepfakes-history/9/)
- [Starting a task before all the instructions are given often leads to mistakes.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/50-listening-following-talk-asking-good-questions/6/)
- ["Finds it hard to stay on task" means the pupil wastes time in class.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/10/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «task» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/task/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.