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Task vs Operation - What's the difference?

task | operation |

As nouns the difference between task and operation

is that task is a piece of work done as part of one’s duties while operation is the method by which a device performs its function.

As a verb task

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

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

    * * *

    operation

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The method by which a device performs its function.
  • It is dangerous to look at the beam of a laser while it is in operation .
  • The method or practice by which actions are done.
  • The act or process of operating; agency; the exertion of power, physical, mechanical, or moral.
  • * John Locke
  • The pain and sickness caused by manna are the effects of its operation on the stomach.
  • * Dryden
  • Speculative painting, without the assistance of manual operation , can never attain to perfection.
  • A planned undertaking.
  • The police ran an operation to get vagrants off the streets.
    The ''Katrina'' relief operation was considered botched.
  • A business or organization.
  • We run our operation from a storefront.
    They run a multinational produce-supply operation .
  • (medicine) a surgical procedure.
  • She had an operation to remove her appendix.
  • (computing, logic, mathematics) a procedure for generating a value from one or more other values (the operands).
  • (military) a military campaign (e.g. )
  • (obsolete) Effect produced; influence.
  • * Fuller
  • The bards had great operation on the vulgar.

    Synonyms

    * (mathematics) * (mathematics)

    Derived terms

    * * *

    Anagrams

    * ----