Meaning & use
completed work
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
Tasks or jobs that have been finished, especially after being started or assigned.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: talk about completed work in general, not 'a completed work' for tasks.
Patterns
- completed work on something
- a piece of completed work
- submit completed work
The manager checked the completed work before sending the invoice.
She listed all her completed work in the monthly report.
Completed work must be stored in the shared folder.
nouncountable
A finished piece of creative or academic work, such as a painting, book, or project.
Grammar: Countable here: use 'a completed work' or 'completed works' for individual finished pieces.
Patterns
- a completed work by someone
- completed works of art
- display completed works
The gallery showed three completed works by local artists.
His completed work was praised by the committee.
The museum owns several completed works from that period.
Common combinations
- completed work on a project
- She did the completed work on the project before the deadline.
- a piece of completed work
- Please hand in one piece of completed work by Friday.
- completed works of art
- The exhibition features completed works of art from the last decade.
- submit completed work
- Students must submit completed work through the online portal.
- review completed work
- The editor will review completed work before publication.
Synonyms and how they differ
- finished work
- Very close in meaning, but 'finished' is more informal and often describes the state of something rather than an official record.
- accomplished task
- More formal and usually refers to a single task that has been achieved, not a general body of work.
Opposites
Word family
- complete verb
- To finish doing or making something.
- completion noun
- The act of finishing something.
- incomplete adjective
- Not finished or missing parts.
Commonly confused: completed work or complete work?
completed work vs complete work
'Complete work' can mean the whole of something ('the complete works of Shakespeare'), while 'completed work' means work that has been finished.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'completed work' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Completed work' means work that has been finished, so option 0 fits. Option 1 uses 'complete work' to mean the whole of something, which is a different meaning. Option 2 uses the wrong form 'completing work,' and option 3 uses the countable plural for a single task, which is not natural here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “completed work”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.