Meaning & use
collaborative work
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Meanings
noununcountable
work done by two or more people or groups who share ideas and effort to reach a common goal.
Grammar: No plural and no 'a' before it: 'Collaborative work takes time.'
Patterns
- collaborative work on something
- do collaborative work
- collaborative work between A and B
The science project was collaborative work between three universities.
Our team does a lot of collaborative work with designers in other countries.
She enjoys collaborative work more than working alone.
nouncountable
a single piece of art, writing, or music created jointly by more than one person.
Grammar: Here it can take 'a' and a plural: 'a collaborative work,' 'several collaborative works.'
Patterns
- a collaborative work by someone
- a collaborative work between A and B
The mural is a collaborative work by local students and professional artists.
Their latest album is a collaborative work with a famous jazz singer.
Common combinations
- collaborative work environment
- A collaborative work environment encourages people to share ideas.
- collaborative work project
- The class was divided into groups for a collaborative work project.
- encourage collaborative work
- The manager encourages collaborative work across departments.
- collaborative work skills
- Employers often look for collaborative work skills.
Synonyms and how they differ
- teamwork
- Teamwork focuses on how a group functions together, while collaborative work often stresses shared creation or problem-solving.
- cooperation
- Cooperation can be simply helping each other, but collaborative work usually means working closely toward a shared result.
Opposites
Word family
- collaborate verb
- to work together with someone on a task or project.
- collaboration noun
- the act of working together, or a piece produced together.
- collaborator noun
- a person who works with others on a project.
- collaboratively adverb
- in a way that involves working together.
Commonly confused: collaborative work or cooperative work?
collaborative work vs cooperative work
Cooperative work means work done with willingness to help, but it does not always mean creating something together; collaborative work does.
Practice
The research paper was ___ between two laboratories.
Choose one answer.
The phrase 'collaborative work' is uncountable here, so it takes no article. 'A collaborative work' would be correct only if you meant one specific piece of art or writing, not the activity of working together.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “collaborative work”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.