Task vs Portion - What's the difference?
task | portion |
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 difficult or tedious undertaking.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=
, volume=189, issue=6, page=34, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= An objective.
(computing) A process or execution of a program.
To assign a task to, or impose a task on.
* 1610 , , act 1 scene 2
* Dryden
To oppress with severe or excessive burdens; to tax.
To charge, as with a fault.
* Beaumont and Fletcher
An allocated amount.
That which is divided off or separated, as a part from a whole; a separated part of anything.
One's fate; lot.
* Bible, Luke xii. 46
* Keble
The part of an estate given or falling to a child or heir; an inheritance.
* Bible, Luke xv. 12
A wife's fortune; a dowry.
* 1613 , , V. iv. 31:
To divide into amounts, as for allocation to specific purposes.
To endow with a portion or inheritance.
As nouns the difference between task and portion
is that task is a piece of work done as part of one’s duties while portion is portion.As a verb task
is to assign a task to, or impose a task on.task
English
Noun
(en noun)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.}}
Ian Sample
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.}}
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) processDerived terms
* multitasking * subtask * task force * take to task * taskable * taskbody * tasklet * taskmasterVerb
(en verb)- On my first day in the office, I was tasked with sorting a pile of invoices.
- 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.
- There task thy maids, and exercise the loom.
- Too impudent to task me with those errors.
Anagrams
* * *portion
English
Noun
(en noun)- The lord of that servant will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
- Man's portion is to die and rise again.
- Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
- Commend me to her, and to piece her portion / Tender her this.
Usage notes
Relatively formal, compared to the more informal part or more concrete and casual piece. For example, “part of the money” (both informal) but “portion of the proceeds” (both formal).Synonyms
* part * pieceDerived terms
* portionless * proportionVerb
(en verb)- Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans, blest. — Alexander Pope.