Meaning & use
my life's work
Last updated
Meaning
phrasefixed phrase
the most important work or achievement that you do during your whole life
Grammar: Usually used with a possessive: 'my life's work', 'her life's work', 'his life's work'. It can also be used without a possessive in general statements: 'This is a life's work.'
Patterns
- my life's work
- devote your life's work to something
- someone's life's work is destroyed
After forty years of teaching, she said the school was her life's work.
He devoted his life's work to finding a cure for the disease.
The fire destroyed the library, which had been the librarian's life's work.
Common combinations
- devote your life's work to something
- She devoted her life's work to helping refugees.
- someone's life's work is destroyed
- The flood destroyed the farmer's life's work in one night.
- the culmination of my life's work
- This book is the culmination of my life's work.
- dedicate your life's work
- He dedicated his life's work to protecting the forest.
Synonyms and how they differ
- life's achievement
- This focuses on the result or success rather than the work itself, and is less common.
- magnum opus
- This is a formal, often literary term for the greatest single work of an artist or writer, not the whole career.
Commonly confused: my life's work or life work?
my life's work vs life work
'Life work' without the apostrophe-s is sometimes seen, but the standard phrase is 'life's work'.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option An is correct: 'her life's work' means the main achievement of her life. Option B puts the apostrophe in the wrong place, option C reverses the words, and option D uses the wrong possessive form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “my life's work”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.