different between work vs progress

English

Alternative forms

• werk, werke, worke (obsolete)
• wuk (nonstandard, AAVE)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /w??k/
• (Broad Geordie) IPA^(key): [w??k]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /w?k/, [w?k]
• (NYC) IPA^(key): /w??k/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k

Etymology 1

From Middle English work, werk, from Old English worc, weorc, ?eweorc, from Proto-Germanic *werk? (“work”), from Proto-Indo-European *wér?om; akin to Scots wark, Saterland Frisian Wierk, West Frisian wurk, Dutch werk, German Werk, German Low German Wark, Danish værk, Norwegian Bokmål verk, Norwegian Nynorsk verk, Swedish verk and yrke, Icelandic verk, Gothic ???????????????????????????????? (gawaurki), Ancient Greek ????? (érgon, “work”) (from ?????? (wérgon)), Avestan ????????????????????? (v?r^?z, “to work, to perform”), Armenian ???? (gorc, “work”), Albanian argëtoj (“entertain, reward, please”). English cognates include bulwark, boulevard, energy, erg, georgic, liturgy, metallurgy, organ, surgeon, wright. Doublet of ergon.

Noun

work (countable and uncountable, plural works)

1. (heading, uncountable) Employment.
   1. Labour, occupation, job.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:occupation
   2. The place where one is employed.

   3. (by extension) One's employer.

   4. (dated) A factory; a works.
      • 1917, Platers' Guide (page 246)

        In trials of a Martin furnace in a steel work at Remscheiden, Germany, a lining of zirconia was found in good condition after […]

2. (heading, uncountable) Effort.
   1. Effort expended on a particular task.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:work

   2. Sustained human effort to overcome obstacles and achieve a result.

      • The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.

   3. Something on which effort is expended.

   4. (physics) A measure of energy expended in moving an object; most commonly, force times distance. No work is done if the object does not move.

   5. (physics, more generally) A measure of energy that is usefully extracted from a process.
3. (heading) Product; the result of effort.
   1. (uncountable, often in combination) The result of a particular manner of production.

   2. (uncountable, often in combination) Something produced using the specified material or tool.

   3. (countable) A literary, artistic, or intellectual production.
      • “[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […] ”

   4. (countable) A fortification.

4. (uncountable, slang, professional wrestling) The staging of events to appear as real.
5. (mining) Ore before it is dressed.
6. (slang, plural only) The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.)

Derived terms

Descendants

• Pijin: waka

Translations

See also

• (product (combining form)): -ing

Etymology 2

From Middle English werken and worchen, from Old English wyr?an and wircan (Mercian), from Proto-Germanic *wurkijan? (“to work”), from Proto-Indo-European *wer?- (“to work”). Cognate with Old Frisian werka, wirka, Old Saxon wirkian, Low German warken, Dutch werken, Old High German wurken (German wirken, werken and werkeln), Old Norse yrkja and orka, (Swedish yrka and orka), Gothic ???????????????????????????????? (waurkjan).

Verb

work (third-person singular simple present works, present participle working, simple past and past participle worked or (rare/archaic) wrought)

1. (intransitive) To do a specific task by employing physical or mental powers.
   1. Followed by in (or at, etc.) Said of one's workplace (building), or one's department, or one's trade (sphere of business).

   2. Followed by as. Said of one's job title

   3. Followed by for. Said of a company or individual who employs.

   4. Followed by with. General use, said of either fellow employees or instruments or clients.

2. (transitive) To effect by gradual degrees.
   • 1712, Joseph Addison, Cato, a Tragedy

     So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains / Of rushing torrents and descending rains, / Works itself clear, and as it runs, refines, / Till by degrees the floating mirror shines.

3. (transitive) To embroider with thread.
4. (transitive) To set into action.

5. (transitive) To cause to ferment.
6. (intransitive) To ferment.
   • 1612, Francis Bacon, Essay on Natural History

     the working of beer when the barm is put in

7. (transitive) To exhaust, by working.
   • 1774, Edward Long, The History of Jamaica. Or, General Survey of the Antient and Modern State of that Island, volume 2, chapter 11, 240:

     They were told of a ?ilver mine, that had been worked by the Spaniards, ?omewhere in the Health?hire Hills, in St. Catharine; but they were not able to di?cover it.

8. (transitive) To shape, form, or improve a material.

9. (transitive) To operate in a certain place, area, or speciality.

10. (transitive) To operate in or through; as, to work the phones.
11. (transitive) To provoke or excite; to influence.

12. (transitive) To use or manipulate to one’s advantage.

13. (transitive) To cause to happen or to occur as a consequence.

14. (transitive) To cause to work.

15. (intransitive) To function correctly; to act as intended; to achieve the goal designed for.

16. (intransitive, figuratively) To influence.

17. (intransitive) To effect by gradual degrees; as, to work into the earth.
18. (intransitive) To move in an agitated manner.

    A ship works in a heavy sea.

    • 1705, Joseph Addison, Remarks on several parts of Italy, &c., in the years 1701, 1702, 1703

      confused with working sands and rolling waves

19. (intransitive) To behave in a certain way when handled

20. (ditransitive, poetic) To cause (someone) to feel (something); to do unto somebody (something, whether good or bad).
    • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:

      And indeed I blamed myself and sore repented me of having taken compassion on him and continued in this condition, suffering fatigue not to be described, till I said to myself, "I wrought him a weal and he requited me with my ill; by Allah, never more will I do any man a service so long as I live!"
21. (obsolete, intransitive) To hurt; to ache.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XXI:

      ‘I wolde hit were so,’ seyde the Kynge, ‘but I may nat stonde, my hede worchys so—’

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• "work" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 334.

References

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English progresse, from Old French progres (“a going forward”), from Latin pr?gressus (“an advance”), from the participle stem of pr?gred? (“to go forward, advance, develop”), from pro- (“forth, before”) +? gradi (“to walk, go”). Displaced native Old English forþgang.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: pr?'gr?s, IPA^(key): /?p??????s/, /?p?????s/
• (US) enPR: prä'gr?s, pr?'gr?s, IPA^(key): /?p?????s/, /?p?o????s/, /-??s/
• Rhymes: -?????s, -????s

Noun

progress (countable and uncountable, plural progresses)

1. Movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time. [from 15th c.]

   Testing for the new antidote is currently in progress.

2. Specifically, advancement to a higher or more developed state; development, growth. [from 15th c.]

   Science has made extraordinary progress in the last fifty years.

3. An official journey made by a monarch or other high personage; a state journey, a circuit. [from 15th c.]
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 7:

     ... Queen Elizabeth in one of her progresses, stopping at Crawley to breakfast, was so delighted with some remarkably fine Hampshire beer which was then presented to her by the Crawley of the day (a handsome gentleman with a trim beard and a good leg), that she forthwith erected Crawley into a borough to send two members to Parliament ...

   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 124:

     With the king about to go on progress, the trials and executions were deliberately timed.

4. (now rare) A journey forward; travel. [from 15th c.]
   • 1887, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders:

     Now Tim began to be struck with these loitering progresses along the garden boundaries in the gloaming, and wondered what they boded.

5. Movement onwards or forwards or towards a specific objective or direction; advance. [from 16th c.]

   The thick branches overhanging the path made progress difficult.

Usage notes

• To make progress is often used instead of the verb progress. This allows complex modification of progress in ways that can not be well approximated by adverbs modifying the verb. See Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

Derived terms

• work-in-progress

Translations

Etymology 2

From the noun. Lapsed into disuse in the 17th century, except in the US. Considered an Americanism on reintroduction to use in the UK.

Pronunciation

• enPR: pr?gr?s', IPA^(key): /p??????s/

Verb

progress (third-person singular simple present progresses, present participle progressing, simple past and past participle progressed)

1. (intransitive) to move, go, or proceed forward; to advance.

   They progress through the museum.
2. (intransitive) to improve; to become better or more complete.

   Societies progress unevenly.

3. (transitive) To move (something) forward; to advance, to expedite.
   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 266:

     Or […] they came to progress matters in which Dudley had taken a hand, and left defrauded or bound over to the king.

Antonyms

• regress
• retrogress

Translations

Related terms

Further reading

• progress in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• progress in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Latvian

Etymology

Via other European languages, ultimately borrowed from Latin pr?gressus (“an advance”), from the participle stem of pr?gred? (“to go forward, advance, develop”), from pro- (“forth, before”) + gradi (“to walk, go”).

Pronunciation

Noun

progress m (1st declension)

1. progress (development, esp. to a higher, fuller, more advanced state; transition from a lower to a higher level)

   Synonyms: att?st?ba, evol?cija

Declension

Related terms