hard
It's hard work trying to get him to do a few things for himself.
It doesn't require skill—it's a matter of sheer hard work.

arduous, back-breaking, challenging, complicated, demanding, difficult, gruelling/grueling, intensive, labour-intensive/labor-intensive, tiring, tough
The show is the product of two years' intensive work.

tireless
Through their tireless work, they proved his innocence.

rewarding
heavy
They employ a couple of young men to do the heavy work.

donkey (BrE,informal)
I did the donkey work (= hard work requiring little skill) but I hired a professional for the hard part.

grunt (AmE,informal)
He has done the grunt work (= the hard, boring part of a task), sifting through thousands of official records.

light
She's only allowed to do a little light work because of her bad arm.

easy
close
I need to wear glasses for close work.

physical
delicate
dangerous
dirty
Engine maintenance is dirty work.
The drugs gang used children to do their dirty work for them. (figurative)

monotonous, repetitive, tedious
fascinating, interesting
purposeful
Many unemployed people welcome the chance to do purposeful work, even if unpaid.

valuable
The research institute needs funds in order to carry on its valuable work.

professional
men's, women's
They think that caring for children is women's work.

intellectual, mental
creative, imaginative
practical (see also fieldwork, paperwork)
detective, investigative
undercover
The scandal was revealed after months of undercover work by journalists.

leg (usually legwork)
Her job as a market researcher involves a lot of legwork (= walking around to collect information).

class, course (usually coursework), school (usually schoolwork)
She was getting distracted from her schoolwork.

written
His written work is the best in the class.

individual
group
project
collaborative, joint
classroom activities involving collaborative work between children
The report is the joint work of an economist and a sociologist.

remedial, restoration
The poorly designed bridge needs remedial work to make it safe.

background, preliminary, preparatory
follow-up
extra
He's willing to do extra work to get the project finished on time.

honest
He preferred to make his money from honest work rather than from gambling.

excellent, good, nice (informal), outstanding, sterling (esp. BrE)
Nice work, James! I'm impressed.
In accepting the award, she mentioned the sterling work of her assistants.

careful, meticulous, painstaking
poor, shoddy, sloppy
charitable, humanitarian
community, youth
missionary
groundbreaking, innovative, pioneering
He did pioneering work on microbes.

empirical, experimental
theoretical
academic, commercial, educational, environmental, scientific
building, construction
cosmetic, dental
She's had a lot of dental work done.

your own
Is this all your own work (= did you do it without help from others)?

bit, piece
It was an interesting piece of work.

carry out, do, put in
All the construction work was carried out in 2001.
I had lots of work to do.
She's put in a lot of work on the design.

get done, have done
I think I'd better try and get some work done.
We're going to have some building work done on the house.

create, make
All these visitors make a lot of work for me.

produce
Work produced on a computer tends to look more professional.

get, have
We get far too much work at this time of year.

take on, undertake
I've taken on more work than I have time to do.

create, make
Small children make a lot of work for their parents.

begin, commence, get down to, set about, set to, start
They began work on the project last year.
Stop talking and get down to work.
We set to work on the outside of the house (= for example, painting it).

go about
She went cheerfully about her work.

carry on, continue, resume
complete, finish
halt, hold up, stop
Work on the project was halted.

lose
They lost the work to a competitor.

undo
The new president spent the first year undoing the work of his predecessor.

oversee, supervise
The assistant manager supervises work on the factory floor.

check, inspect
admire, appreciate, value
I really appreciate all your hard work.

support
We give grants to support the work of voluntary organizations.

set sb to
She set them to work painting the fence.

require
To carry out accurate market research requires a huge amount of work.

hand in, submit
We're supposed to hand in this work tomorrow.

come
The work comes in bursts according to the time of year.

wait
That work can wait until tomorrow.

go
How's the work going this morning?

involve sth
What does the work involve?

begin, start
continue, go on
come to a halt, grind to a halt
Work came to a complete halt in the summer.

cost
How much will the work cost?

ethic
rate
Her boss told her she had to increase her work rate.

habit
Children can learn good work habits at school.

programme/program, schedule
crew (AmE)
The construction company has three work crews of five men each.

load (usually workload)
The instructor's work load was becoming increasingly heavy.

flow
Her job is to manage the company's work flow.

surface
Work surfaces should be left clear and clean.

at work
He's been hard at work all morning.

work on
I have to do some work on the car before it'll be ready.

work with
She's done a lot of work with disadvantaged children.

a backlog of work
It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.

keep up the good work
The hotel manager thanked the staff and told them to keep up the good work.

your life's work
The art collection was his life's work.

make light work of sth, make short work of sth (= to do sth quickly and easily)
Mike made short work of fixing the engine.

not a stroke of work (esp. BrE)
She never does a stroke of work.

pressure of work
Pressure of work forced him to cancel the cruise.

work in progress
The showroom has been designed so that people can see work in progress.

paid, unpaid
She is now looking for paid work outside the home.

lucrative, well-paid
badly paid
full-time, part-time
permanent
temporary
regular, steady
He hasn't been in regular work since he left school.

casual
During the college vacations he does casual work in the local hospital.

freelance
voluntary, volunteer
skilled
semi-skilled
unskilled
manual
indoor, outdoor
daily, day-to-day, everyday, routine
People went about their daily work despite the war.
Ambulance crews alternate between emergency and routine work.

piece
It's piece work, so how much you earn depends on how fast you can work.

administrative, clerical, office, secretarial
managerial
domestic
social
research
agricultural, farm
building
nice (informal,humorous)
A hundred grand for two days a week? Nice work if you can get it!

have
He has some freelance work at the moment.

look for
He got laid off, so now he's looking for work again.

find, get
Full-time work is hard to find.

go to
I go to work by bus.

go out to
Some mothers of young children choose not to go out to work.

start
finish, knock off (informal)
What time do you finish work?

stop
She stops work at the end of this month.

give up
Just before he was sixty, he decided to give up work.

go back to, return to
She has just returned to work after the birth of her child.

allocate, give
outsource
coordinate
Sales reps meet up monthly to coordinate their work.

enjoy, love
I'm lucky—I love my work.

go
Work's going well at the moment.

start
What time does work start in the morning?

finish
consist of sth, include sth, involve sth
Her work consists of drawing up and coordinating schedules.

day (esp. AmE), hours, week (esp. AmE)
Employees must not make personal calls during work hours.

force (usually workforce)
place (usually workplace)
area, environment, room (usually workroom)
station (usually workstation)
boots (esp. AmE), clothes
schedule
experience
The opportunities will depend on your work experience.
He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering company. (BrE)

permit, visa
incentive
High income tax can undermine work incentives.

practice
An independent report has described some work practices in the industry as old-fashioned.

stoppage

at work
‘Where's Diane?’ ‘She's at work.’
We had a party at work.

in (your) work
With so much unemployment, I'm lucky to be in work. (BrE)
It's important to be happy in your work.

off work (esp. BrE)
She's been off work with a bad back since July.

out of work
He's been out of work since the factory closed.

through work
I met him through work.

a line of work
‘What line of work are you in?’ ‘Computing.’

a place of work

classic, fine, great
definitive, seminal
Her book is still considered the definitive work on beetles.

best-known, well-known
important, influential
erudite, scholarly
ambitious
creative
literary
dramatic
critical
autobiographical, biographical
artistic
photographic
sculptural
art (usually artwork)
The artwork in the book is superb.

untitled
completed, finished
The finished work will be on view in the city art gallery.

unfinished
collaborative
solo
commissioned
He does mainly commissioned portrait works.

abstract, figurative, graphic
choral, orchestral
guitar, piano, etc.
collected, complete
the collected works of Stephen King

early
late, mature
Picasso's mature works

latest, present, previous, recent
These paintings are more abstract than her previous work.

copyrighted
People are using file-sharing to steal copyrighted works.

published
Her portfolio includes published works in several magazines.

derivative
original

series
collection, exhibit (AmE), exhibition (esp. BrE)
The gallery is staging a special exhibition of Monet's early works.

compose, create, produce, write
Beethoven composed his greatest works in the latter part of his life.

choreograph, conduct, translate
commission
perform, play
hear, read, see
Her work can be seen in most of the major European galleries.

conduct, direct, edit, produce, publish, put on
Over the next two years, the company is putting on the complete works of Brecht.

display, exhibit, feature, show, showcase
The town hall is exhibiting works by local artists.

acclaim, admire, appreciate, praise
critique (esp. AmE), discuss, review
inform, inspire
A love of landscape informs all his work.

be called sth, be entitled sth, be titled sth (esp. AmE)
a work entitled ‘The Sacrifice’

depict sth, describe sth, represent sth
The work represents a synthesis of the natural and the artificial.

consist of sth
a work consisting of twelve small blank canvases

appear, be on show, go on show
Her work appears at the Museum of Contemporary Art this summer.

in a/the work
She's studying the theme of death in the works of Beckett.

work by
a work by an unknown 18th-century writer

a work of art, a work of fiction, a work of literature
The building is hated by some and considered a work of art by others.
They discovered that his report was a complete work of fiction. (humorous)

a work of genius
Her latest novel is a work of genius.

extensive, major
road (usually roadworks in BrE and roadwork in AmE)
maintenance, repair, restoration

carry out
We are planning to carry out major works on the site.

plan
announce

continue, go on
The works will continue until the end of July.

be completed, finish

at the work (BrE)
A contraflow is in operation at the works near Junction 5.

brick, iron, steel (usually brickworks, etc.)
railway (BrE)
sewage, treatment
The smell is believed to have originated from the sewage works.
Scotland's biggest water treatment works

open
close, close down, shut down

open
close, close down
The steelworks closed in 1986.

manager, supervisor
canteen (BrE)

at the work
the night shift at the works

hard
He had been working hard all morning.

tirelessly
assiduously, busily, diligently, methodically
feverishly, frantically
steadily
slowly
quickly
around the clock, round the clock (esp. BrE)
Emergency teams were working around the clock to make the homes secure.

full-time, part-time
A lot of mothers choose to work part-time.

illegally
He was found to be working illegally and was deported.

effectively, efficiently, productively
I work more efficiently on my own.

actively
We are actively working to increase the number of women in science.

closely, collaboratively, cooperatively, together
people who have worked closely together over a period of time

harmoniously
We have proved that different groups can work harmoniously together.

alone, independently, individually
directly
She works directly with customers.

primarily
I work primarily with young children.

away
We worked steadily away all morning.

continue to
choose to, prefer to
I prefer to work as part of a team.

motivate sb to
Employees are motivated to work harder for a whole host of different reasons.

enable sb to
I needed a job which would enable me to work at home.

refuse to

as
He's working as a teacher at the moment.

at
I've spent three hours working at this problem.

for
She works for an oil company.

on
We are working on plans for a new swimming pool.

towards/toward
They are all working towards/toward a common goal.

with
the people you work with

within
An architect must work within the confines of the laws of physics.

correctly, effectively, efficiently, properly, satisfactorily, well
Everything worked very smoothly.

flawlessly, perfectly, seamlessly, smoothly
beautifully, brilliantly, splendidly (esp. BrE), wonderfully
independently
The fish's eyes can work independently of each other.

differently
synergistically (esp. AmE)

seem to

work like a charm, work like magic
Her strategy worked like a charm.

work to sb's advantage, work to sb's disadvantage
You can make your youth work to your advantage.

beautifully, fine, great, perfectly, well
badly

as
It all worked out as we planned.

between
I told her I didn't think things would work out between us.

for
Things worked out well for Janet in the end.

to
This all works out to around $11 000.

Work is used with these nouns as the subject:
anaesthetic, approach, artist, brain, brake, computer, cure, device, diplomacy, effort, employee, equipment, evolution, experiment, flash, heating, idea, imagination, immigrant, labourer, link, lung, machine, magic, mechanism, metaphor, method, mind, motor, muscle, plan, ploy, printer, process, relationship, remedy, scheme, scientist, sculptor, servant, staff, strategy, system, tactic, technique, thing, tractor, traffic light, trainee, trick, volunteer, watch, worker

Work is used with these nouns as the object:
cash register, circuit, crowd, desk, door, farm, field, hour, jaw, job, land, machine, magic, mine, miracle, muscle, overtime, passage, pedal, plantation, plot, puppet, shift, soil, way