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Glite Dictionary
🧠 To solve ✅ To end well 🏋️ To exercise 🧮 To calculate
to work out

to work out

911 3.0
To happen in a certain way, often with a good result
  • phrasal verb
  • /wɜrk aʊt/
translation icon : salir bien
  • I was worried about our project, but it eventually worked out in the end.
  • things work out
  • work out well
  • so it worked out

So this just did not work out for me.

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Examples

  • "I'm sure everything will work out just fine." "I think so, too," I said.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • But then when I'm up, I know it will all work out for the best.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • So this just did not work out for me.

    Tati

  • What if it all works out for you?

  • And that did not work out quite so well.

  • Actually, that was an accident, but it worked out for everyone.

    1242: Gateway to the West (2025)

  • I think things will work out well, the way you wanted it to.

    L.U.N.A. (2021)

  • I hope they work out for her sake.

  • Everything's working out just the way I planned.

    Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

  • "I wasn't sure it was going to work out, but I had to take the chance.

    Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

to work
vsto work out
∞ 1.0

To move forward slowly while making steady progress

focuses on how something develops to a particular successful result

Antonyms

to fail
898 1.0

Not succeed in doing something you wanted to do

to fall apart
155 2.8

To break into pieces or stop working properly

How Well

to flourish
116 4.1
to succeed
846 2.0
to work out
911 3.0
to turn out
∞ 3.4
to fail
898 1.0
to go wrong
495 2.4

Surface Forms

work out infinitive
worked out past
worked out past participle
working out present participle
works out third person singular

Morphology

work + out

The sense 'to exercise' is plausibly connected to 'work' (physical effort) with the particle 'out' adding a sense of exertion or completion, so a learner who knows the constituents could reasonably infer a gym/exercise meaning. However, 'work out' is a polysemous phrasal verb (also meaning 'solve' or 'turn out well') and the exact gym-specific reading is not strictly compositional or universally mirrored across languages, making the connection only partially predictable.

Etymology

Work out may come from the image of a job that goes on until it reaches an end, with the parts work and out showing an action finished. So when something works out, it 'turns out' in a certain way, often a good one.