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Meaning & use

case load

noun·Academic

Last updated

UK/ˈkeɪsləʊd/
US/ˈkeɪsloʊd/

Meaning

  1. nouncountable

    The number of clients, patients, or legal matters a professional is responsible for at one time.

    Grammar: Usually singular with an or the: a heavy caseload.

    Patterns

    • a heavy caseload
    • handle a caseload

    The social worker has a caseload of forty families.

    Her caseload grew when a colleague left.

    Judges are struggling with an enormous caseload.

Word forms

pluralcaseloads

Common combinations

heavy caseload
Nurses with a heavy caseload risk burning out.
manage a caseload
She manages a caseload of thirty patients.
reduce the caseload
The council wants to reduce the caseload for social workers.
carry a caseload
Each lawyer carries a caseload of about twenty cases.

Synonyms and how they differ

workload
Workload covers all the work a person has, while caseload counts only the clients or cases.
portfolio
Portfolio suggests a range of projects or investments rather than people being helped.
docket
Docket is a court's list of cases, not an individual worker's total.

Word family

case noun
a matter being handled
load noun
an amount of work or weight carried
caseworker noun
a person who manages cases in social services

Commonly confused: case load or workload?

case load vs workload

A workload is all the tasks someone has, while a caseload is specifically the number of cases or clients.

Practice

A social worker with sixty families to support has a heavy ___.

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