The principal body of work to which a person devotes much of a lifetime.
Reach for it when honoring sustained vocation or achievement without reducing a whole life to paid employment
The catalog documents the botanist's lifework of restoring native seed varieties.
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| everyday | |
| warm | |
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| literary |
playful
master project
Fits when one ambitious undertaking integrates years of skill
Careful Master project sounds informal and can exaggerate a bounded assignment into a lifetime commitment.
everyday
life's work
Fits when natural phrasing suits a long personal commitment
Careful Life's work can include family or civic devotion beyond a professional output.
warm
Fits when the enduring influence after someone leaves is central
Careful Legacy concerns what remains, while lifework concerns what was made or pursued.
professional
career achievement
Fits when one culminating accomplishment deserves recognition
Careful A career achievement may be a single peak rather than the continuing body of work.
professional
oeuvre
Fits when the complete creative output of an artist is meant
Careful Oeuvre is confined mainly to art and scholarship, not a social mission or enterprise.
literary
Fits when a deep calling gives direction to working life
Careful Vocation names the calling, not the completed work.
scholarly lifework
Her scholarly lifework made endangered oral histories accessible to descendants.
complete a lifework
He invited younger researchers to complete a lifework that no one person could finish.
devote a lifework
The engineer chose to devote a lifework to affordable mobility.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Updated
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