What is the difference between worked and wrought?

As verbs the difference between worked and wrought

is that worked is past tense of work while wrought is past tense of work.

As adjectives the difference between worked and wrought

is that worked is designed or executed in a particular manner or to a particular degree while wrought is having been worked or prepared somehow.

worked

English

Verb

(head)

(work)

Adjective

(-)

Designed or executed in a particular manner or to a particular degree.

* 1811 , William Singers, "On the Varieties of Wheat, Barley, Oats, Peas, and Beans", Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland , page 73:

A heavy rich loam'' is, perhaps, the best of any; but ''carse'' lands, and well worked and manured ''clay soils, are also very suitable.

Wrought.

# Processed in a particular way; prepared via labour.

#* 1832 , James Justinian Morier, Zorhab the Hostage , page 39:

...the light and elastic spear, made of the India bamboo, and tipped with the most perfectly worked steel, which he now held in his hand...

# Decorated or embellished; embroidered.

#* 1803 , William Alexander, The Costume of the Russian Empire , page 84:

...and many of them, at least when young, wear only a worked piece of linen over their head.

Prepared so as to demonstrate the steps required.

* 1835 , R.H. Nicholls and Francis Walkingame, Taplin's Improved Edition of Walkingame's Tutor's Assistant , page 108:

Place each error opposite its supposed number, as in the worked example.

References

wrought

English

Adjective

(en adjective)

Having been worked or prepared somehow.

Is that fence made out of wrought iron?

Antonyms

* unwrought

Derived terms

* wrought iron * wrought-up

Verb

(head)

(work)

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= High and wet , passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. The early, intense onset of the monsoon on June 14th swelled rivers, washing away roads, bridges, hotels and even whole villages. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.}}

Usage notes

* In modern English, wrought is usually not interchangeable with worked, the more common contemporary past and past participle of work. * Wrought often lends a more archaic flavor. * The separation of wrought'' from ''work'' has also occurred because while ''work'' can be either intransitive or transitive, it is more commonly intransitive, and ''wrought is transitive only. * Because the phrase "work havoc" has become uncommon in modern English, its past tense "wrought havoc" is sometimes misinterpreted as being a past tense of "wreak havoc".

Derived terms

* overwrought English irregular past participles English irregular simple past forms