Exercise vs Task - What's the difference?

As nouns the difference between exercise and task

is that exercise is any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability while task is a piece of work done as part of one’s duties.

As verbs the difference between exercise and task

is that exercise is to exert for the sake of training or improvement; to practice in order to develop while task is to assign a task to, or impose a task on.

exercise

English

Noun

(en noun)

Any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability.

*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

*:desire of knightly exercise

*(John Locke) (1632-1705)

*:an exercise of the eyes and memory

Physical activity intended to improve strength and fitness.

*:This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking.He was smooth-faced, and his fresh skin and well-developed figure bespoke the man in good physical condition through active exercise , yet well content with the world's apportionment.

A setting in action or practicing; employment in the proper mode of activity; exertion; application; use.

*(Thomas Jefferson) (1743-1826)

*:exercise of the important function confided by the constitution to the legislature

* (1809-1892)

*:O we will walk this world, / Yoked in all exercise of noble end.

The performance of an office, ceremony, or duty.

*(Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)

*:Lewis refused even those of the church of Englandthe public exercise of their religion.

*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

*:to draw him from his holy exercise

(lb) That which gives practice; a trial; a test.

*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

*:Patience is more oft the exercise / Of saints, the trial of their fortitude.

Alternative forms

* exercice * excercise

Derived terms

* exercise book * exercise machine * five-finger exercise * floor exercise * military exercise

Verb

(exercis)

To exert for the sake of training or improvement; to practice in order to develop.

To perform physical activity for health or training.

To use (a right, an option, etc.); to put into practice.

*Bible, (w) xxii. 29

*:The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery.

To occupy the attention and effort of; to task; to tax, especially in a painful or vexatious manner; harass; to vex; to worry or make anxious.

*(and other bibliographic particulars for citation) (John Milton)

*:Where pain of unextinguishable fire / Must exercise us without hope of end.

(lb) To set in action; to cause to act, move, or make exertion; to give employment to.

*Bible, (w) xxiv. 16

*:Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence.

*:Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence.

External links

* * 1000 English basic words

task

English

Noun

(en noun)

A piece of work done as part of one’s duties.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= A new prescription , passage=As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.}}

A difficult or tedious undertaking.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Ian Sample

, volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains , passage=Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.}}

An objective.

(computing) A process or execution of a program.

Usage notes

* Adjectives often applied to "task": difficult, easy, simple, hard, tough, complex, not-so-easy, challenging, complicated, tricky, formidable, arduous, laborious, onerous, small, big, huge, enormous, tremendous, gigantic, mammoth, colossal, gargantuan, social, intellectual, theological, important, basic, trivial, unpleasant, demanding, pleasant, noble, painful, grim, responsible, rewarding, boring, ungrateful, delightful, glorious, agreeable.

Synonyms

* (piece of work) chore * (difficult undertaking) undertaking * (objective) objective, goal * (process) process

Derived terms

* multitasking * subtask * task force * take to task * taskable * taskbody * tasklet * taskmaster

Verb

(en verb)

To assign a task to, or impose a task on.

On my first day in the office, I was tasked with sorting a pile of invoices.

* 1610 , , act 1 scene 2

All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come / To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly, / To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride / On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task / Ariel and all his quality.

* Dryden

There task thy maids, and exercise the loom.

To oppress with severe or excessive burdens; to tax.

To charge, as with a fault.

* Beaumont and Fletcher

Too impudent to task me with those errors.

Anagrams

* * *