workload

noun

work·​load ˈwərk-ˌlōd 

1

: the amount of work or of working time expected or assigned

students with a heavy workload

2

: the amount of work performed or capable of being performed (as by a mechanical device) usually within a specific period

Examples of workload in a Sentence

Students complained about the heavy workload.

Recent Examples on the Web

These tests will measure how effectively the hardware handles demanding workloads, although HPE has not disclosed specific processing speeds or expected benchmark results. — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 21 Oct. 2026

Anthropic said last month that its own validation workloads grew 25 fold in six months as Claude took over most of its code output. — Beatrice Nolan, Fortune, 21 Oct. 2026

Tier workloads by business impact, such as systems that must be back within hours, those that can wait days, and those that can wait longer. — Michael Wu, Forbes.com, 20 Oct. 2026

Neocloud companies are cloud computing firms that specialize in infrastructure tailored to supporting artificial intelligence workloads. — Liz Napolitano, CNBC, 19 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1899, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for workload

• abode
• anode
• barcode
• bestowed
• boatload
• borrowed
• carload
• caseload
• cathode
• commode
• corrode
• crossroad

Kids Definition

workload

noun

work·​load ˈwərk-ˌlōd 

1

: the amount of work or of working time expected or assigned

students with a heavy workload

2

: the amount of work performed or capable of being performed usually within a specific period

a machine's workload