• TheFreeDictionary
  • Word / Article
  • Starts with
  • Free toolbar & extensions
  • Word of the Day
  • Free content
  • adequate to
  • air expeditionary wing
  • Air Force special operations detachment
  • air tasking order
  • air tasking order/confirmation
  • amphibious force
  • amphibious task force
  • at priority call
  • attack group
  • aviation combat element
  • carrier battle group
  • classroom project
  • collection requirements management
  • combat engineering
  • combat service support element
  • Tashunca-Uitco
  • task component
  • task element
  • task organization
  • tasking order
  • taskmistress
  • task-organizing
  • task-oriented
  • Tasman Abel Janszoon
  • Tasman dwarf pine
  • Tasmanian cider tree
  • Tasmanian devil
  • Tasmanian tiger
  • Tasmanian wolf
  • tassel flower
  • tassel hyacinth
  • tassel-shaped
  • tasseography
  • Tasso Torquato
  • tasking us with
  • tasking with
  • tasking you with
  • Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination
  • Tasking, Posting, Processing and Using
  • Tasking, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination
  • Tasking/Processing/Exploitation/Dissemination Assessment Process
  • Taskmaster (comics)
  • taskmasters
  • taskmistresses
  • tasks her with
  • tasks him with
  • tasks it with
  • tasks me with
  • Tasks of Basic Cognitive Processes
  • Tasks of the Russian Social Democrats
  • Tasks of the Struggle Against Imperialism
  • Tasks of the Youth Leagues
  • tasks one with
  • tasks someone with
  • tasks something with
  • tasks them with
  • tasks us with
  • tasks you with
  • Tasks, Appointments, Priorities, and People
  • Tasks, Duties and Responsibilities
  • Tasks/Conditions/Standards
  • Taslitzky, Boris
  • Facebook Share

Synonyms of tasks

  • as in duties
  • as in purposes
  • as in entrusts
  • More from M-W
  • To save this word, you'll need to log in. Log In

Thesaurus Definition of tasks

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Synonyms & Similar Words

  • assignments
  • responsibilities
  • enterprises
  • undertakings
  • commissions
  • occupations
  • involvements
  • participations

Thesaurus Definition of tasks  (Entry 2 of 2)

Thesaurus Entries Near tasks

taskmistresses

Cite this Entry

“Tasks.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tasks. Accessed 18 Feb. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on tasks

Nglish: Translation of tasks for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of tasks for Arabic Speakers

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries.  Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.

Can you solve 4 words at once?

Word of the day.

See Definitions and Examples »

Get Word of the Day daily email!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

8 grammar terms you used to know, but forgot, homophones, homographs, and homonyms, commonly misspelled words, a guide to em dashes, en dashes, and hyphens, absent letters that are heard anyway, popular in wordplay, the words of the week - feb. 16, 8 uncommon words related to love, 9 superb owl words, 'gaslighting,' 'woke,' 'democracy,' and other top lookups, 10 words for lesser-known games and sports, games & quizzes.

Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.

Go to the homepage

Definition of 'task'

IPA Pronunciation Guide

Video: pronunciation of task

Youtube video

task in American English

Task in british english, examples of 'task' in a sentence task, more idioms containing task, related word partners task, trends of task.

View usage over: Since Exist Last 10 years Last 50 years Last 100 years Last 300 years

Browse alphabetically task

  • task a team with
  • task completion
  • All ENGLISH words that begin with 'T'

Related terms of task

  • boring task
  • View more related words

Quick word challenge

Quiz Review

Score: 0 / 5

Image

Wordle Helper

Tile

Scrabble Tools

Cambridge Dictionary

  • Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Definition of task – Learner’s Dictionary

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

  • I had the sad task of sorting through her papers after she died .
  • Max has undertaken the task of restoring an old houseboat .
  • Robson's first task will be to inspire his team with some confidence .
  • We ranked the tasks in order of importance .
  • UN troops were assigned the task of rebuilding the hospital .

(Definition of task from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translations of task

Get a quick, free translation!

{{randomImageQuizHook.quizId}}

Word of the Day

to try to communicate with a person or a group of people, usually in order to help or involve them

Bumps and scrapes (Words for minor injuries)

Bumps and scrapes (Words for minor injuries)

tasks dictionary definition

Learn more with +Plus

  • Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
  • Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
  • Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
  • Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
  • English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
  • English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
  • English–Dutch Dutch–English
  • English–French French–English
  • English–German German–English
  • English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
  • English–Italian Italian–English
  • English–Japanese Japanese–English
  • English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
  • English–Polish Polish–English
  • English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
  • English–Spanish Spanish–English
  • English–Swedish Swedish–English
  • Dictionary +Plus Word Lists
  • Learner’s Dictionary    Noun
  • Translations
  • All translations

Add task to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{message}}

Something went wrong.

There was a problem sending your report.

  • Pop culture
  • Writing tips
  • Daily Crossword
  • Word Puzzle
  • Word Finder
  • Word of the Day
  • Synonym of the Day
  • Word of the Year
  • Language stories
  • All featured
  • Gender and sexuality
  • All pop culture
  • Grammar Coach ™
  • Writing hub
  • Grammar essentials
  • Commonly confused
  • All writing tips

Advertisement

noun as in job or chore, often assigned

Strongest matches

  • responsibility
  • undertaking

Strong matches

Weak matches

  • daily grind
  • fun and games
  • long row to hoe

verb as in assign, burden

Discover More

Example sentences.

As more people come online, the most basic tasks—such as going out to the market to sell produce—will become more efficient.

He describes these tasks as “more work than most of the subscribers think”.

My tasks vary from marketing to writing a page for a magazine.

Here is a title that, in its prologue, tasks players with fighting a horde of angels on top of a moving jet.

Do some kids struggle more than others to attend to tasks, both academic and household?

Teachers often complain that they can never induce some of their pupils to ask questions on their tasks.

Indeed, 'we have laid upon him various arduous tasks touching the state of the country, and especially its tranquillity.'

All who were standing hurried to their tasks at this word of command, and all who were sitting as promptly rose.

In his class, which then consisted of three male students and a host of women, Rubinstein would often set the most comical tasks.

One of the first immediate tasks to be done was the training of soldiers in Virginia and the acquiring of cannon and fire-arms.

Synonym of the day

Start each day with the Synonym of the Day in your inbox!

By clicking "Sign Up", you are accepting Dictionary.com Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policies.

On this page you'll find 78 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to tasks, such as: duty, function, business, undertaking, work, and project.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

  • Dictionaries home
  • American English
  • Collocations
  • German-English
  • Grammar home
  • Practical English Usage
  • Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
  • Word Lists home
  • My Word Lists
  • Recent additions
  • Resources home
  • Text Checker

Definition of task verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

  • be tasked with something NATO troops were tasked with keeping the peace.

Want to learn more?

Find out which words work together and produce more natural-sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app. Try it for free as part of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.

tasks dictionary definition

By Jennifer Schuessler

Academic freedom is a bedrock of the modern American university. And lately, it seems to be coming under fire from all directions.

For many scholars, the biggest danger is at public universities in Republican-controlled states like Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis has led the passage of laws that restrict what can be taught and spearheaded efforts to reshape whole institutions. But at some elite private campuses, faculty have increasingly begun organizing against a very different threat.

Over the past year, faculty groups dedicated to academic freedom have sprung up at Harvard, Yale and Columbia, where even some liberal scholars argue that a prevailing progressive orthodoxy has created a climate of self-censorship and fear that stifles open inquiry.

The fallout from the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel has upended many campuses, as college presidents have been ousted, campus protest has been restricted and alumni , donors and politicians have pushed for greater control. And it has also scrambled the politics of academic freedom itself.

In recent years, academic freedom, like free speech more generally, has become coded as a conservative cause, seen as a rallying cry for those who want to battle academia’s liberal tilt.

Now, continuing campus protest over the Israel-Gaza war has, in some cases, turned the debate on its head.

Some ask why, after years of restricting speech that makes some members of certain minority groups feel “unsafe,” administrators are suddenly defending the right to speech that some Jewish students find threatening. Others accuse longtime opponents of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts of cynically weaponizing those principles to suppress pro-Palestinian views.

The roiling debates have even opened up rifts among champions of academic freedom. Jeannie Suk Gersen, a professor at Harvard Law School and a leader of the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard, said that the cause stands “at a crossroads.”

“Do we think about academic freedom as something that protects everyone, regardless of content and ideology and politics?” she said. Or do we “carve out an exception,” as some advocates seem to argue, and forbid speech that is considered anti-Israel or antisemitic?

A Slippery Concept

It’s a profoundly unsettled moment on many campuses, which has left many academics feeling vulnerable. And even in calmer times, academic freedom can be an esoteric and slippery concept.

The American Association of University Professors defines it as “the freedom of a researcher in higher education to investigate and discuss the issues in his or her academic field, and teach or publish findings without interference from political figures, boards of trustees, donors or other entities.”

While academic freedom is often conflated with the broader principle of free speech, it is distinct from it. Under the First Amendment, all speech is equal before the state. But academic freedom depends on expertise and judgment — “the notion,” as the legal scholar Robert C. Post has put it , that “there are true ideas and false ideas,” and that it is the job of scholars to distinguish them.

Defending the rights of academics may be a hard sell today, as trust in higher education has dropped sharply amid partisan debates about teaching and concern over debt and high college costs. But academic freedom, experts say, is not about the privileges of professors, but about protecting the university’s core purpose and social value.

“The mission of a university is to sponsor truth-seeking scholarship and provide non-indoctrinating teaching,” said Robert P. George, a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton and a founder of the Academic Freedom Alliance , a multi-campus group created in 2021.

And for that to happen, George said, “we must be free to challenge any view or belief.”

Until recently, faculty at elite private universities may have felt immune from the kind of overt political interference unfolding in Florida, where Governor DeSantis’s efforts threaten “the very survival of meaningful higher education in the state,” according to a recent A.A.U.P. report .

But concern is now surging at private universities too, as congressional investigations of campus antisemitism at Harvard and a growing number of other schools have morphed into what some see as dangerously open-ended fishing expeditions .

Harvard, the nation’s oldest and richest university, has long been a prime target for critics of higher education. Since Oct. 7, it has also been the scene of colliding arguments about academic freedom — and how to defend it.

Much of the action has centered on the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard , a faculty group founded last spring to promote “free inquiry, intellectual diversity and civil discourse.”

The group, which started with roughly 70 members, now has about 170. Politically, they range from conservatives and center-right figures to more traditional liberals, and include such prominent figures as the psychologist Steven Pinker, the legal scholars Randall Kennedy and Janet Halley, the economists Jason Furman and Lawrence Summers, the former medical school dean Jeffrey Flier and the political philosopher Danielle Allen.

The group was formed out of longstanding concerns, organizers say, though one catalyst was the case of Carole Hooven, a longtime lecturer in evolutionary biology. Hooven came under fire after a 2021 television interview in which she said that while diverse gender identities should be respected, there are just two biological sexes, male and female, which are “designated by the kinds of gametes we produce.”

The student leader of her department’s diversity task force, writing on social media, called her comments “transphobic and harmful,” and graduate students declined to serve as teaching assistants for her course on hormones and human behavior. Hooven, who did not have tenure, left her position in January 2023, after receiving what she has described as no support from the administration. (She is now a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an unpaid associate in Pinker’s lab.)

In an interview, Pinker said that her case, along with others , showed that Harvard had become rife with intolerance and self-censorship.

“Leftist consensus had become so entrenched,” he said, “that anything that conformed to it was self-evidently true, while anything that disagreed with it was self-evidently evil.”

In an opinion article in The Boston Globe announcing the group, Pinker and Bertha Madras, a professor of psychobiology, said it would defend reasoned debate against those who would shut it down. “When activists are shouting into an administrator’s ear,” they wrote, “we will speak calmly but vigorously into the other one.”

Free Speech, or Harassment?

The group drew a skeptical initial response from some, including faculty members who saw it as vehicle for the views of prominent members like Pinker, a critic of D.E.I. initiatives and a longtime advocate for greater “viewpoint diversity” on campus. An editorial in The Harvard Crimson accused the group of caricaturing activists and seeming to take “a one-sided view of academic freedom.”

Then came Oct. 7, which exposed fissures within the council itself.

Their email discussion group, like much of the campus, lit up with scorching debate. One heated topic was how to respond to the outcry over a letter issued by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee immediately after the Oct. 7 attack, which declared that the Israeli government was “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”

The hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman, a Harvard donor, demanded that the university release the names of students affiliated with the 30 campus groups that initially endorsed the letter, so employers could avoid hiring them. A “doxxing truck,” sponsored by the conservative group Accuracy in Media, appeared in Harvard Square, with a screen showing photographs of affiliated students under the label “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites.”

To some council members , harsh criticism of the students was part of the rough and tumble of free speech, and the truck, paid for by an off-campus group, lay beyond the group’s purview. But to others, the denunciations crossed the line from legitimate criticism to personal attacks that put students in danger and chilled speech more broadly.

Ultimately, the council made no statement. Pinker, one of five co-presidents, said it was decided that the optics would be off, given what he described as Harvard’s dismal record on free speech .

Defending offensive speech “just at the moment when it involves absolving the killers and rapists of Jews didn’t seem like an auspicious first statement,” he said.

Kennedy, the law professor, believes that charges of campus antisemitism have been exaggerated and weaponized by partisans. But he agreed that criticism of the student letter was within bounds.

“People are unrealistic when they say, ‘We want free speech, we want debate, we want difficult conversations,’” he said. “But then we want all smiles.”

For some council members, however, the fracas was “a clarifying moment,” as Ryan Enos, a professor of government, put it in an interview.

Enos, who describes himself as a liberal, said he had initially agreed with conservative colleagues that the biggest threat to academic freedom at Harvard was “the political homogeneity on campus.” But after Oct. 7, he said, it was startling to see prominent council members calling on the administration to condemn or even punish student speech.

Enos quit the council, saying members were “being hypocrites.” In the face of calls to punish speech, he said in the interview, “they ran away with their tail between their legs.”

He said he was also disturbed by the council’s lack of response to threats by Republican congressmen to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status , which he called “a shocking affront to academic freedom.”

“Liberals at places like Harvard were having a hard time defending academic freedom anyway,” Enos said. “Now, people are going to be even more skeptical.”

Gersen, another co-president, said the group was still new and “finding its way.” She was among 700 faculty members who signed a letter in December urging the Harvard’s board not to fire the president, Claudine Gay, and has described congressional hearings in which Representative Elise Stefanik grilled Gay and two other university presidents as “a McCarthy-esque spectacle.”

Other members saw things differently. But for a group dedicated to open debate, Gersen said, disagreement — including about academic freedom — “is a feature, not a bug.”

A Multi-Campus Movement

Still, the suspicion that groups rallying under the banner of academic freedom are pushing a specific ideological agenda has extended to some other campuses.

At Yale, a group called Faculty for Yale , introduced on Feb. 13, is urging the university to “rededicate itself to its fundamental mission” and “insist on the primacy of teaching, learning and research as distinct from activism and advocacy.”

So far, the group has garnered nearly 80 public supporters. But another group of professors immediately issued a counter-letter, urging Yale’s leadership to recognize the importance of diversity and to defend American universities against attacks from donors, politicians and “members of their own faculty, who argue that universities have lost their way.”

At Columbia, leaders of the Columbia Academic Freedom Council, a faculty group formed last month, emphasize in an interview that they were not a right-wing or a left-wing group.

“We want to occupy the center,” said James Applegate, an astrophysicist.

But the politics of free speech are fraught at Columbia, where the moves to suspend two pro-Palestinian campus groups and limit faculty and student protest have been assailed by some as censorship and applauded by others.

The group has not yet made the names of its more than 70 founding members public. Jacqueline Gottlieb, a neuroscientist, said some interested junior faculty had been wary to join, lest it complicate their tenure prospects.

“This is an illustration” of the problem, she said. “People are afraid.”

At Harvard, the Council on Academic Freedom recently endorsed a broad statement of principles , which called on the university to vigorously defend academic freedom, including against “attempts to use state power to curtail” it.

The philosopher Edward Hall, a co-president, said he would have been “happy” if the group had spoken out against the so-called doxxing truck. But parsing threats to academic freedom is “an intellectually complicated question.”

“There are a range of clear cases,” he said. “But what landed on our plates were unclear cases.”

Jennifer Schuessler is a culture reporter covering intellectual life and the world of ideas. She is based in New York. More about Jennifer Schuessler

'Girl dinner,' 'bussin' and 'the ick': More than 300 new entries added to Dictionary.com

tasks dictionary definition

It may have started off as a video that exploded into a meme, but "girl dinner" is now one of more than 300 words added to Dictionary.com's lexicon in 2024.

On Tuesday, Dictionary.com announced it was adding 327 new entries, 173 new definitions for existing entries and 1,228 revised definitions to the dictionary. The newly-added terms are broad, stemming from major topics of the day and range from economics and climate to health and wellness and slang.

“The intersection of language, learning, and culture is boundless, and we recognize that words have the power to shape thoughts, bridge gaps, and reflect our ever-evolving society,” John Kelly, vice president of editorial at Dictionary.com said in a release. “Our semi-annual New Words announcement is meant to support a greater understanding of where language is, where it might go next—and why the constantly expanding universe of words matters for our everyday lives.”

Here's a look at just some of the hundreds of words recently added to Dictionary.com, as well as their definitions and the origin behind the term. The full list of new words can be found on Dictionary.com .

Girl dinner

  • Often attractively presented collection of snacks that involve little preparation, such as small quantities of cold cuts, cheese, fruit, cherry tomatoes, etc., deemed sufficient to constitute a meal for one.
  • Girl dinner went viral after TikTok user Olivia Maher used the term in a video in May 2023, possibly shortening an earlier version, hot girl dinner, that often included decadent or youth-maintaining food.
  • Mediocre, unimpressive, or disappointing.
  • Great; wonderful; amazing.
  • Popular among Gen Z, this term originates in African American culture and is likely based on various senses of bust meaning “to explode,” “to do well,” or “to enjoy.”
  • A sudden feeling of disgust or dislike, often in response to the actions of another person.
  • This phrase, popular in dating culture and on TikTok, is thought to trace back to the late 1990s TV show Ally McBeal. The ick is also used as an informal term for an illness, especially a cold or flu.
  • A ploy or technique that bypasses traditional methods or rules in order to improve oneself or one’s success.
  • This more recent sense of the term is an extension of its use in the context of video games, in which it refers to a hidden command, code, etc., used to gain an advantage, such as by advancing levels or enhancing a character’s strengths.

Range anxiety

  • The apprehension or fear that an electric vehicle’s battery will run out of power beforereaching one’s intended destination or a charging station.

Skiplagging

  • The practice of purchasing an air ticket for a flight with a layover at one’s true destination, getting off at the layover point, and skipping the last leg of the flight: a workaround to avoid paying a higher fare for a direct flight to one’s destination.
  • The verb form is skiplag, a compound of skip, “to jump or pass over,” and lag, “an instance of staying behind."

Bed rotting

  • The practice of spending many hours in bed during the day, often with snacks or an electronic device, as a voluntary retreat from activity or stress.
  • Despite the negative connotation of rotting, many use this term in a positive way to refer to what they consider a form of self-care. The verb form is bed rot.

Pretty privilege

  • An unearned and mostly unacknowledged societal advantage that a person has by fitting into the beauty standards of their culture.
  • Pretty privilege uses the same construction as white privilege and similar terms.
  • An aesthetic or style featuring playful pink outfits, accessories, decor, etc., celebrating and modeled on the wardrobe of the Barbie doll.
  • We’re likely still fully within the trend of using -core to form names for niche aesthetics, such as cottagecore and normcore.

Slow fashion

  • A movement among clothing producers and consumers that emphasizes eco-friendly, well-made clothing, maintenance and repair of garments to extend their lifespan, and a general reduction of one’s consumption of new clothing items.
  • This term is used in contrast with fast fashion. The fast/slow framing is perhaps best known for its use in the distinction between fast food and slow food, but it will likely continue to be applied in other contexts where there is interest in sustainable practices.

Bechdel test

  • A test of gender stereotyping and inequality in fiction, having a number of variations and used especially with movies, based on whether the work includes at least two fairly important female characters who talk to each other about something besides a man.
  • The first recorded uses of the term Bechdel test come from between 2005 and 2010, but the concept was introduced by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in a 1985 comic strip.

Tommy John surgery

  • An operation to repair a torn ligament on the inner side of the elbow by replacing it with a tendon from elsewhere in the body or from a donor.
  • Common among baseball players, the surgery gets its name from pitcher Tommy John, on whom the procedure was first performed in 1974. It is formally called ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction.
  • A substance containing dietary fiber that stimulates the growth or activity of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract.

Greedflation

  • A rise in prices, rents, or the like, that is not due to market pressure or any other factor organic to the economy, but is caused by corporate executives or boards of directors, property owners, etc., solely to increase profits that are already healthy or excessive.
  • The verb form is greedflate. Other recently added inflation words include shrinkflation and shadow inflation.

More From Forbes

5 workplace trends that will define 2024.

Forbes Human Resources Council

  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Linkedin

Mindi Cox, Chief People Officer at O.C. Tanner .

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, employers have navigated a dizzying array of trends: Remote collaboration. Back-to-the-office mandates. Quiet quitting. Quiet cutting . Quiet hiring . While the buzzwords that will dominate the work-related conversations and TikTok feeds in 2024 have yet to be coined, many leading organizations are getting ahead of the game by introducing effective changes that meet employees’ evolving demands.

As chief people office at O.C. Tanner, here are five trends I've observed among successful organizations that I expect to see more of in 2024.

1. Focus on skills building.

“How can I grow here?” Recent McKinsey research has delved into the frequency with which today’s applicants pose this question during job interviews. After many years of compensation being a primary driver to attracting talent, particularly in the tech industry, workers now place equal emphasis on career development. This isn’t unique to the tech world. At the O.C. Tanner Institute, our research found that 83% of workers say it’s important for prospective employers to offer skill-building opportunities.

When workers are satisfied with their employers’ skill-building efforts, they're more likely to produce high-caliber work. Therefore, leaders are recognizing that traditional programs with limited, predictable options will no longer suffice. In 2024, leading organizations will offer innovative skill-building programs that provide employees with abundant options, autonomy to explore their interests and recognition for their achievements.

As The Ukrainians Fling 50,000 Drones A Month, The Russians Can’t Get Their Drone-Jammers To Work

Google reveals much needed google photos upgrade but there s a catch, taylor swift fans reportedly forced travis kelce to move out of his brand new house.

Of course, the best results will come when employers take a collaborative approach and ask employees what they want to learn. When skills building is pursued in partnership with the workforce, and then paired with recognition to encourage and honor their learning, employees will likely feel connected to their leaders and that they’re getting what they really want from their work experience.

2. Offer equitable flexibility.

Employees crave flexibility. When they get it, they’re in a better position to give back. For example, when people are satisfied with their employer, they're more likely to refer others as potential hires. While the rise of remote work has made the employee experience more flexible than ever, oftentimes only certain teams can work remotely while others work specified shifts on site. Even though flexibility around how, where and when people do their jobs may vary by role or rank, these differences can breed resentment, and leaders are noticing.

Leaders can prioritize equitable flexibility in 2024 by finding ways to give all workers greater influence over what they do as well as how, when and where they do it. Even small measures—like making it easier for workers to leave for doctor appointments or allowing them to experiment with new ways of tackling tasks—can boost engagement, satisfaction and the sense of a flexible work environment.

3. Elevate “80% workers.”

Eighty percent of the global workforce is “deskless” —workers who spend most of their time away from desks, computers and office space. These critical employees do their jobs in factories, warehouses, hospitals, restaurants and other settings. But they often lack access to the standard tools and technologies of office life, leading them to feel overlooked, underappreciated and demoralized. Even leaders accustomed to managing high turnover now recognize the urgency of boosting every employee’s experience.

At O.C. Tanner, we expect to see a range of efforts to improve the 80% experience in 2024 as organizations seek to retain their people and inspire them to do great work. The most successful efforts will focus on access (the availability of technology, tools and experiences that connect employees to the organization) and enablement (the degree to which employees have autonomy, influence and voice).

4. Reward nimble resilience.

Organizations tend to prize resilience, the ability to withstand stress and bounce back from hardships. But in today’s highly dynamic work environments, resilience alone is insufficient. Throughout this year and beyond, we’ll start to see leaders adopt what we call “nimble resilience.” Rather than merely reacting to change, the nimbly resilient proactively pursue it and work to make agile pivots.

This will require a major shift in mindset across all levels of an organization. Employees and leadership must see challenges as newfound opportunities to innovate. This culture shift isn't easy, but organizations can begin to foster it by introducing policies and programs that encourage behavior like collaboration and cross-disciplinary thinking. This is how nimble resilience thrives, which also allows businesses to prioritize employees' well-being and psychological safety.

5. Change up change management.

When organizations undertake change management processes , senior leaders typically design a transformation strategy and create detailed implementation roadmaps. Copious memos usually follow, directing managers to execute on the plans—which they may not understand or endorse—and persuading workers to buy in. This top-down approach has lost its relevance. Organizational changes that don’t incorporate employees’ and managers’ input are unlikely to gain their support—making lasting change impossible.

In 2024, we’ll see more organizations experiment with a people-centered approach to change management. Managers will be involved in shaping plans from the outset and given ample resources to help their people navigate the disruption. Employees will have a voice in the process through surveys, focus groups, town halls or one-to-one conversations. And regardless of the outcome, they’ll receive the training and support they need to evolve alongside the organization.

2024 Is The Year To Invest In People

Even as technology and buzzword-heavy trends appear to reshape workplaces and entire industries, organizations are only as strong as their people. Throughout the year, top leaders will make strategic investments that prioritize high performance by encouraging and celebrating their people and their progress. With the right approach to equitable experiences, flexibility, skill building and change, organizations can elevate their performance and the human beings who power them.

Forbes Human Resources Council is an invitation-only organization for HR executives across all industries. Do I qualify?

Mindi Cox

  • Editorial Standards
  • Reprints & Permissions

The Washington Post

How Americans define a middle-class lifestyle — and why they can’t reach it

A poll from The Washington Post finds widespread agreement among Americans on what it means to be middle class. But just over a third of U.S. adults have the financial security to meet that definition, according to a Post analysis of data from the Federal Reserve.

Americans also underestimate the income required for that lifestyle, suggesting that the popular image of middle-class security is more of an aspiration than a reality for most Americans.

About 9 in 10 U.S. adults said that six individual indicators of financial security and stability were necessary parts of being middle class in the Post poll. Smaller majorities thought other milestones, such as homeownership and a job with paid sick leave, were necessary.

“Middle class-ness and predictability are very tied in the American imagination,” said Caitlin Zaloom, an anthropology professor at New York University. “Sometimes that is about security in the present, but it also means feeling secure about where life is going.”

Just over a third of Americans met all six markers of a middle-class lifestyle. While about 9 in 10 Americans had health insurance, only three-quarters had health insurance and a steady job. With each added measure of financial security, more Americans slipped away from the middle-class ideal.

Researchers often define the middle class based on income, in part because income data is frequently collected and easy to access. But that income doesn’t guarantee a middle-class lifestyle.

One commonly used definition from the Pew Research Center sets a middle-class income between two-thirds and twice the national median income, or $67,819 to $203,458 for a family of four in 2022. Most Americans consider the lower end of that range, $75,000 and $100,000, to be middle class, according to the Post poll.

Even when looking at middle-income Americans using Pew’s more expansive range, the majority did not have the security associated with the middle class.

Those that did tended to be older, had higher incomes and were more likely to have a college education and own their homes. While the Post poll found 60 percent of Americans considered homeownership essential to being middle class, homeowners over age 30 were more likely to be financially secure even when comparing people with similar ages and incomes, according to a Federal Reserve survey .

The most common barrier was a comfortable retirement, something that about half of middle-income Americans over 35 felt they were on track to achieve.

Gallup polling last spring found that retirement was Americans’ top financial worry. Even for those who can save, retirement planning requires complicated judgments about how long someone expects to live and the future of government support through programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

“The de facto landscape now for retirement is to save like hell and hope you don’t live too long,” said Ben Harris, vice president and director of economic studies at Brookings. “And that’s a terrible paradigm.”

The shift from defined benefit plans to individual retirement accounts has increased the importance of saving for retirement, at the same time as rising housing and student loan payments are taking up a growing share of income, according to Annamaria Lusardi, senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

“There was a time in which family income was a lot more defining about your life and your financial security,” Lusardi said. “But now you are in charge of much more of your future, particularly in terms of the financial decisions that people have been asked to make.”

While the path to middle-class financial security has become more complicated, the share of people with it hasn’t markedly declined over time.

Since 2017, the earliest year of comparable data, between 32 and 40 percent of Americans met all six measures, with a low in 2017 and a high in 2021.

Another survey, the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, provides a broader view of American financial stability back to the 1980s. More Americans today have $1,000 in liquid savings than they did 40 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. And the share of Americans with money in a retirement or pension account has held steady over the past 40 years.

“The idea that you can have a secure job with predictable wages, with health care and retirement, and being able to pay for your housing — those things are all part of a mid-century vision of the middle-class life trajectory,” said Zaloom, the anthropologist.

“Even in the 1960s, the idea that this was a very widespread phenomenon was always kind of a fiction,” she added.

The draw of the middle class is rooted in far more than the desire for financial security.

“It’s the perfect model of American identity,” said cultural historian Larry Samuel, author of “ The American Middle Class: A Cultural History .” “It fits so well with our ethos of egalitarianism and being a meritocracy. These are all myths, of course, but they’re embedded in how we see ourselves.”

“It’s a club that everyone kind of wants to be a part of,” Samuel said, “regardless of your economic circumstances.”

About this story

Sonia Vargas and Dylan Moriarty contributed to this report.

This Washington Post poll was conducted Nov. 3-6, 2023, among a national sample of 1,280 U.S. adults with an error margin of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points. The sample was drawn through SSRS’s Opinion Panel, an ongoing survey panel recruited through random sampling of U.S. households. To enable subgroup comparisons, the survey included oversamples of households with lower incomes. This and other groups were weighted back to their share of the adult population according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The definitions of low, middle and upper household incomes are based on values from the 2023 Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey. All household incomes are adjusted for size via an equivalence adjustment scale, following the Pew Research Center’s methodology .

Analysis of the financial security of American households uses data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) and the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF).

The middle class criteria were defined as follows for each survey:

  • Steady job: had a non-temporary job or were already retired (SHED 2017-2022); working, retired, disabled, student or homemaker (SCF).
  • Cover emergency expenses: could pay a $1,000 emergency expense using only their savings (SHED 2022 for point in time analysis); would pay a $400/500 emergency expense using their savings or a credit card they would pay off in full at the end of the month (SHED 2017-2022 for historical analysis); had at least $1,000 in liquid assets (SCF).
  • Pay bills: were able to pay all their bills in full during the month of the survey and would be able to pay those bills even if they had had to pay an emergency expense of $400 or $500 (SHED 2017-2022); no late debt payments in the last year (SCF).
  • Health insurance: had health insurance (SHED 2017-2022); not applicable for SCF.
  • Comfortable retirement: feel that their retirement savings are on track, or are already retired and feel they are doing at least okay financially; individuals under 35 did not have to meet this criteria to be considered middle class (SHED 2017-2022); any amount in retirement savings or pension accounts (SCF).
  • Save for the future: spent no more than their household income in the last month or has a rainy-day fund that can cover three months of expenses (SHED 2017-2022); saved over the last 12 months (SCF)

How Americans define a middle-class lifestyle — and why they can’t reach it

Fiscal Year Definition

Table of Contents

What Is a Fiscal Year?

Why do businesses use fiscal years, examples of fiscal years.

A fiscal year is the 12 months that a company designates as a year for financial and tax reporting purposes . This year can differ from the traditional calendar year, and it varies for each corporation.

Companies align their fiscal years with their preferred accounting schedule, audits, the release of financial reports and other financial activities. You can see the company's fiscal year and the current quarter on its quarterly financial reports.

Fiscal Year for Tax Reporting

The IRS uses the calendar year as a default. Businesses have to specify when their fiscal years start and conclude if they do not wish to use traditional calendar years. Businesses can change their fiscal year, but they must get approval from the IRS. A company must submit an income tax return that indicates the fiscal year to incorporate a fiscal year for tax reporting purposes.

If a company is using a fiscal year to file its corporate tax return, it must do so by the 15th day of the fourth month after its fiscal year ends. This is similar to the way taxpayers following the traditional calendar year typically file on April 15, as the calendar year ends on Dec. 31.

Many small businesses use the calendar year for their financial activities. However, some publicly traded corporations opt for fiscal years. It may not make sense at first glance, since a corporation makes the same amount of money regardless of what time of year the money arrives. There are several advantages to filing on a fiscal year schedule, however.

Tax Advantages

One of the more obvious pluses is that a fiscal year changes the due date for taxes. This approach can help restaurants in seasonal areas that generate most of their revenue in the summer. These restaurants can shift their tax bills to the end of a busy season instead of searching for money in April after a few slow months.

Another perk with fiscal years is that businesses can save money on filing taxes. Accountants are at their busiest leading up to April 15, so many accounting firms will charge higher prices since demand is at its highest. A company that has an Aug. 15 tax deadline doesn't have to contend with the rush earlier in the year.

Advantages for Retailers

It is also common for retailers to end their fiscal year on Jan. 31. This date allows retailers to display all of their revenue from the holiday season. The last quarter of this fiscal year only contains financial results from November, December and January, which is likely one of their best quarters for sales.

Fiscal years vary for each company. Many publicly traded corporations use fiscal years to report earnings , and they include the fiscal year-end date on the 10-K form required annually by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The following day marks the start of a new fiscal year.

For some firms, it is better to structure a fiscal year around key product release months instead of using a traditional calendar year. This can apply to tech firms as well as other types of companies.

Nvidia Corp. (ticker: NVDA ), for example, has a fiscal year that ends on the last Sunday of January. Nvidia's fiscal year is also about a year ahead of the calendar year. Nvidia commenced with fiscal 2023 on Jan. 31, 2022, for example.

Apple Inc. ( AAPL ) also uses a fiscal year structure. The company's fiscal year ends on the last Saturday of September. So on Sept. 24, 2022, for example, Apple was still in fiscal 2022. Apple's fiscal year 2023 started on Sept. 25, 2022, and ended on Sept. 30, 2023.

Even the U.S. government has a fiscal year. The country's fiscal year starts on Oct. 1 and ends on Sept. 30.

Traditional Calendar Year

Not every company uses fiscal years. Amazon.com Inc. ( AMZN ) and Alphabet Inc. ( GOOG , GOOGL ) are two of the many corporations that use traditional calendar years for tax purposes, earnings reports and other financial activities.

The traditional quarters are as follows:

Quarter 1: January, February and March.

Quarter 2: April, May and June.

Quarter 3: July, August and September.

Quarter 4: October, November and December.

Any quarter can be abbreviated as Q followed by the number. Quarter 1 can also be written as Q1. Fiscal year can be abbreviated as FY. Therefore, a report showing a company's results for the third quarter of fiscal 2024 can be shortened to "Q3 FY24 results."

52-Week and 53-Week Fiscal Year Calendars

Many corporations use fiscal years that start on the first day of the month and conclude on the last day of the previous month. A corporation that starts its fiscal year on May 1 will conclude its fiscal year on April 30 of the following calendar year. However, some companies use 52-week and 53-week fiscal year calendars instead.

These corporations prioritize year-over-year changes on a weekly basis instead of quarterly. This approach gives investors more information about a company's financial results and growth rates .

Costco Wholesale Corp. ( COST ) offers monthly reports that detail sales over the past four to five weeks as well as sales results for the number of weeks that have passed within its fiscal quarter.

Fifty-two-week and 53-week fiscal years do not have to end their quarters in the middle of the month. These corporations use 13-week periods to determine fiscal quarters. Four 13-week quarters result in 52 weeks, or 364 days.

Since most years are 365 days and some years are 366 days long, a gap develops. Corporations using 13-week quarters will have one 14-week quarter every few years to address the small gap between 52 weeks and a full calendar year.

ETF vs. Index Fund: Which to Use

Tony Dong Feb. 6, 2024

Handsome businessman using computer at home. Mid adult man is working late at office. He is sitting at table.

Some of the offers on this site are from companies who are advertising clients of U.S. News. Advertising considerations may impact where and in what order offers appear on the site but do not affect any editorial decisions, such as which financial institutions we write about and how we evaluate them.

Related Articles

How 2024 Layoffs Affect Stock Prices

tasks dictionary definition

How Stocks Perform in Election Years

tasks dictionary definition

2024 Investment Outlook

tasks dictionary definition

Recession 2024: How to Prepare

tasks dictionary definition

Commercial Real Estate Outlook for 2024

tasks dictionary definition

ETFs to Hedge Against a Market Crash

tasks dictionary definition

Related Terms

Corporation Definition

Joint Venture Definition

Listed Company Defined

Prospectus Definition

IMAGES

  1. What does Task mean? Project Management Dictionary of Terms

    tasks dictionary definition

  2. How the Task Dictionary works

    tasks dictionary definition

  3. Tasks dictionary [Enterprise plan]

    tasks dictionary definition

  4. How the Task Dictionary works

    tasks dictionary definition

  5. The process using Task Dictionary

    tasks dictionary definition

  6. Tasks

    tasks dictionary definition

VIDEO

  1. what dictionary be like

  2. Dictionary Comprehension

  3. Special Session Topics Concepts of List & Dictionary

  4. Dutifulness Meaning In English

  5. What is Dictionary

  6. What is programming language ? || Definition || #shorts

COMMENTS

  1. Task Definition & Meaning

    ˈtask plural tasks Synonyms of task 1 a : a usually assigned piece of work often to be finished within a certain time b : something hard or unpleasant that has to be done c : duty, function 2 : subjection to adverse criticism : reprimand … the state government was called to task for not doing more to help the area around the casinos.

  2. TASK

    a piece of work to be done, especially one done regularly, unwillingly, or with difficulty: perform a task We usually ask interviewees to perform a few simple tasks on the computer just to test their aptitude. daunting task The government now faces the daunting task of restructuring the entire health service.

  3. TASK Definition & Usage Examples

    noun a definite piece of work assigned to, falling to, or expected of a person; duty. any piece of work. a matter of considerable labor or difficulty. Obsolete. a tax or impost. verb (used with object) to subject to severe or excessive labor or exertion; put a strain upon (powers, resources, etc.). to impose a task on. Obsolete. to tax. adjective

  4. TASK

    a piece of work to be done, especially one done regularly, unwillingly, or with difficulty: perform a task We usually ask interviewees to perform a few simple tasks on the computer just to test their aptitude. daunting task The administration now faced the daunting task of restructuring the entire healthcare system.

  5. TASK definition and meaning

    noun 1. a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or chore 2. an unpleasant or difficult job or duty 3. any piece of work 4. See take to task verb (transitive) 5. to assign a task to

  6. Task

    any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted synonyms: labor, project, undertaking see more noun a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or for a specific fee "the endless task of classifying the samples" synonyms: chore, job see more verb assign a task to "I tasked him with looking after the children" see more verb

  7. TASK

    a piece of work, especially something unpleasant or difficult: [ + of + doing sth ] I was given the task of sorting out all the stuff in the garage. Fewer examples I had the sad task of sorting through her papers after she died. Max has undertaken the task of restoring an old houseboat.

  8. Tasks

    1. a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or chore 2. an unpleasant or difficult job or duty 3. any piece of work 4. take to task to criticize or reprove vb ( tr)

  9. task_1 noun

    a piece of work that somebody has to do, especially a hard or unpleasant one to accomplish/perform/undertake/complete a task a difficult/a daunting/an impossible task Getting hold of this information was no easy task (= was difficult). a thankless task (= an unpleasant one that nobody wants to do and nobody thanks you for doing)

  10. task

    1, 2. job, assignment. Task, chore, job, assignment refer to a definite and specific instance or act of work. Task and chore and, to a lesser extent, job often imply work that is tiresome, arduous, or otherwise unpleasant.

  11. Task Definition & Meaning

    tasks A piece of work assigned to or demanded of a person. Webster's New World Similar definitions Any piece of work. Webster's New World An undertaking involving labor or difficulty. Webster's New World Similar definitions A function to be performed; an objective. It is our task to renew consumer confidence. American Heritage Similar definitions

  12. task_1 noun

    Definition of task_1 noun in Oxford Advanced American Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more. ... Try it for free as part of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary app. 2 an activity that is designed to help achieve a particular learning goal, especially in language teaching ...

  13. Task Definition & Meaning

    : a piece of work that has been given to someone : a job for someone to do a daunting/difficult/impossible task complete/accomplish a task performing simple/routine tasks [+] more examples — see also multitasking take (someone) to task : to criticize (someone) harshly The boss took me to task for wasting time.

  14. TASK Synonyms: 66 Similar Words

    Definition of task 1 as in job a piece of work that needs to be done regularly one of my tasks in the morning is to make lunches for everyone in the family Synonyms & Similar Words Relevance job duty assignment project chore mission function responsibility endeavor errand undertaking operation post enterprise office stint commission care route

  15. TASKS Synonyms: 66 Similar Words

    Definition of tasks plural of task 1 as in duties a piece of work that needs to be done regularly one of my tasks in the morning is to make lunches for everyone in the family Synonyms & Similar Words Relevance duties assignments jobs chores projects responsibilities missions functions errands endeavors operations enterprises undertakings posts

  16. Tasks Definition & Meaning

    Noun Verb Filter noun Plural form of task. Wiktionary Synonyms: assignments responsibilities chores stints duties businesses exercises lessons labors projects studies works undertakings enterprises efforts Antonyms: entertainments funs pastimes Advertisement verb Third-person singular simple present indicative form of task. Wiktionary

  17. Task Definition & Meaning

    noun a definite piece of work assigned to, falling to, or expected of a person; duty. any piece of work. a matter of considerable labor or difficulty. Obsolete. a tax or impost. verb (used with object) to subject to severe or excessive labor or exertion; put a strain upon (powers, resources, etc.). to impose a task on. Obsolete. to tax. adjective

  18. TASK definition in American English

    noun 1. a piece of work assigned to or demanded of a person 2. any piece of work 3. an undertaking involving labor or difficulty verb transitive 4. to assign a task to; require or demand a piece of work of 5. to put a burden on; strain; overtax Idioms: take to task

  19. 78 Synonyms & Antonyms for TASK

    Find 78 different ways to say TASK, along with antonyms, related words, and example sentences at Thesaurus.com.

  20. task

    task meaning: a piece of work, especially something unpleasant or difficult: . Learn more.

  21. 78 Synonyms & Antonyms for TASKS

    Find 78 different ways to say TASKS, along with antonyms, related words, and example sentences at Thesaurus.com.

  22. task_2 verb

    Definition of task_2 verb in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

  23. The Fight Over Academic Freedom

    Academic freedom is a bedrock of the modern American university. And lately, it seems to be coming under fire from all directions. For many scholars, the biggest danger is at public universities ...

  24. 6 Trades, Free-Agency Decisions and Teams That Could Define 2024 NFL

    The 2024 NFL offseason hasn't heated up yet, but you know fire is coming. The league almost never disappoints, especially in March and April. Now, we have a…

  25. Dictionary.com adds over 300 new entries, including 'girl dinner'

    Cheat code. Noun; A ploy or technique that bypasses traditional methods or rules in order to improve oneself or one's success. This more recent sense of the term is an extension of its use in ...

  26. 5 Workplace Trends That Will Define 2024

    Since the Covid-19 pandemic, employers have navigated a dizzying array of trends: Remote collaboration. Back-to-the-office mandates. Quiet quitting. Quiet cutting. Quiet hiring. While the ...

  27. How Americans define a middle-class lifestyle

    One commonly used definition from the Pew Research Center sets a middle-class income between two-thirds and twice the national median income, or $67,819 to $203,458 for a family of four in 2022.

  28. Fiscal Year Definition

    A fiscal year is the 12 months that a company designates as a year for financial and tax reporting purposes. This year can differ from the traditional calendar year, and it varies for each ...