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subtask

subtask

1 3.7
A small part of a larger job or project
  • noun
  • /ˈsʌbˌtæsk/
: subtarea
  • Breaking the project into subtasks made it easier for everyone to manage their workload.
  • tasks and subtasks
  • perform the subtask
  • three subtasks

And of course there's different sort of subtasks.

Examples

  • An alternative explanation for the use of groups in this context is that large tasks can be divided into subtasks, which are then delegated to individual group members.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Analyze each task in a critical activity to determine the performance subtasks required for mastery.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Determine the student's exposure to the skills and concepts of that subtask.

    Academic text (1998)
  • We used data from two subtasks.

    Academic text (2013)
  • Also, as you do a task, there are subtasks which have an inherent interest, and those minor things keep you on track.

    Blog text (27)
  • In turn, each of the subtasks requires knowledge and skills of the concepts of operations with positive and negative numbers and operations with fractions.

    Academic text (2005)
  • Twenty tasks and 47 subtasks were used to delineate the knowledge areas.

    Academic text (1998)
  • The job tracker then breaks that up into subtasks, each of which has its own tracker.

  • The advisory board developed the safe food handling task list into knowledge areas, related tasks, and specific subtasks for each of the competencies (Table 1).

    Academic text (1998)
  • The purpose of concept and/or task analysis or decomposition is to gain insight into the nature of a given concept or task and to identify subtasks and their underlying sub-concepts (Panasuk, 2005b).

    Academic text (2005)

How Big

project
∞ 2.5
task
∞ 1.0
subtask
1 3.7
step
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

subtask singular
subtasks plural

Morphology

subtask = task (transparent) = sub + task

The productive prefix 'sub-' meaning 'under/secondary' combines with 'task' to yield a smaller or subordinate task, a directly derivable meaning.

Etymology

The word subtask is made of the parts sub- meaning 'under' or 'part of something bigger', and task meaning 'a job or piece of work'. So a subtask is a smaller job that is part of a larger project.