"work on" meaning in English

See work on in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: works on [present, singular, third-person], working on [participle, present], worked on [participle, past], worked on [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} work on (third-person singular simple present works on, present participle working on, simple past and past participle worked on)
  1. (transitive) To apply mental or physical effort to (something) in order to shape, form, improve, investigate, solve it, etc. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-work_on-en-verb-X99PoFEf Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "on", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 46 39 15 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "on": 35 36 29 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 34 36 30 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 33 36 31
  2. (transitive) To exercise influence on someone. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-work_on-en-verb-aLU8s2Cq Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "on", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 46 39 15 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "on": 35 36 29 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 34 36 30 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 33 36 31
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see work, on.
    Sense id: en-work_on-en-verb-Uu3qNDpr Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "on", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 46 39 15 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "on": 35 36 29 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 34 36 30 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 33 36 31

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "works on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "working on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "work on (third-person singular simple present works on, present participle working on, simple past and past participle worked on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "46 39 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 36 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"on\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "34 36 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "33 36 31",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              21,
              31
            ]
          ],
          "text": "John's in the studio working on the plans for the new house.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              10,
              20
            ]
          ],
          "text": "I've been working on this problem for several days, but I still haven't figured it out.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To apply mental or physical effort to (something) in order to shape, form, improve, investigate, solve it, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-work_on-en-verb-X99PoFEf",
      "links": [
        [
          "shape",
          "shape"
        ],
        [
          "form",
          "form"
        ],
        [
          "improve",
          "improve"
        ],
        [
          "investigate",
          "investigate"
        ],
        [
          "solve",
          "solve"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To apply mental or physical effort to (something) in order to shape, form, improve, investigate, solve it, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "46 39 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 36 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"on\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "34 36 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "33 36 31",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              28,
              35
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Leave it to me. I'll try to work on the boss to give us the day off.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To exercise influence on someone."
      ],
      "id": "en-work_on-en-verb-aLU8s2Cq",
      "links": [
        [
          "exercise",
          "exercise"
        ],
        [
          "influence",
          "influence"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To exercise influence on someone."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "46 39 15",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 36 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"on\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "34 36 30",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "33 36 31",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Do you work on Sundays?"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see work, on."
      ],
      "id": "en-work_on-en-verb-Uu3qNDpr",
      "links": [
        [
          "work",
          "work#English"
        ],
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "work on"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"on\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "works on",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "working on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked on",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "worked on",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "work on (third-person singular simple present works on, present participle working on, simple past and past participle worked on)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              21,
              31
            ]
          ],
          "text": "John's in the studio working on the plans for the new house.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              10,
              20
            ]
          ],
          "text": "I've been working on this problem for several days, but I still haven't figured it out.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To apply mental or physical effort to (something) in order to shape, form, improve, investigate, solve it, etc."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "shape",
          "shape"
        ],
        [
          "form",
          "form"
        ],
        [
          "improve",
          "improve"
        ],
        [
          "investigate",
          "investigate"
        ],
        [
          "solve",
          "solve"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To apply mental or physical effort to (something) in order to shape, form, improve, investigate, solve it, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              28,
              35
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Leave it to me. I'll try to work on the boss to give us the day off.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To exercise influence on someone."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "exercise",
          "exercise"
        ],
        [
          "influence",
          "influence"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To exercise influence on someone."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Do you work on Sundays?"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see work, on."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "work",
          "work#English"
        ],
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "work on"
}

Download raw JSONL data for work on meaning in English (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.