What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Task vs Target - What's the difference?

task | target |

In transitive terms the difference between task and target

is that task is to assign a task to, or impose a task on while target is to aim something, especially a weapon, at (a target).

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

    * * *

    target

    English

    (wikipedia target)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A butt or mark to shoot at, as for practice, or to test the accuracy of a firearm, or the force of a projectile.
  • A goal or objective.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers.
  • A kind of small shield or buckler, used as a defensive weapon in war.
  • * 1598 , William Shakespeare, Henry IV , Part I, Act II, Scene IV, line 200,
    • These four came all afront, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado but took all their seven points in my target , thus.
  • (obsolete) A shield resembling the Roman scutum. In modern usage, a smaller variety of shield is usually implied by this term.
  • * 1786 , Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons , page 22,
    • The target or buckler was carried by the heavy armed foot, it answered to the scutum of the Romans; its form was sometimes that of a rectangular parallelogram, but more commonly had its bottom rounded off; it was generally convex, being curved in its breadth.
  • (sports) The pattern or arrangement of a series of hits made by a marksman on a butt or mark.
  • (surveying) The sliding crosspiece, or vane, on a leveling staff.
  • (rail transport) A conspicuous disk attached to a switch lever to show its position, or for use as a signal.
  • (cricket) the number of runs that the side batting last needs to score in the final innings in order to win
  • (linguistics) The tenor of a metaphor.
  • (translation studies) The translated version of a document, or the language into which translation occurs.
  • A person (or group of people) that a person or organization is trying to employ or to have as a customer, audience etc.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
    • , title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=Gary Cahill, a target for Arsenal and Tottenham before the transfer window closed, put England ahead early on and Rooney was on target twice before the interval as the early hostility of the Bulgarian supporters was swiftly subdued.}}

    Derived terms

    * targeter * targeting

    Synonyms

    * See also * (translated version) target language

    Coordinate terms

    * (translated version) source

    Verb

  • To aim something, especially a weapon, at (a target).
  • (figuratively) To aim for as an audience or demographic.
    • The advertising campaign targeted older women.
  • (computing) To produce code suitable for.
    • This cross-platform compiler can target any of several processors.

    See also

    *