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Glite Dictionary
litany of tasks

litany of tasks

7.3
A long boring list of tasks you must do that people often complain about
  • noun
  • /ˈlɪtəni əv tæsks/
  • Informal
translation icon : litany de tareas
  • This litany of tasks is exhausting.

Examples

  • She sighed as she looked at the litany of tasks written on her whiteboard.

  • After the holiday, my inbox contained a litany of tasks waiting to be addressed.

  • The project manager presented the team with a litany of tasks for the upcoming week.

  • She presented a litany of tasks for the team to complete.

  • Every week, the team tackles a litany of tasks, from meetings to project updates.

  • The manager gave us a litany of tasks to finish before the deadline, which felt overwhelming.

  • After the storm, the community faced a litany of tasks to restore the damaged homes.

Synonyms

checklist
vslitany of tasks
65 1.8

A list of things to check before doing something

is a long tedious repeated series of things to do not a checking aid
litany
vslitany of tasks
  • Informal
24 7.7

A long list of complaints or problems

focuses on many repeated boring things to be done that people often complain about
laundry list
vslitany of tasks
  • Informal
19 4.3

A long written set of things or tasks, often boring

is about a long often repeated set of boring things to do rather than a neutral list

Antonyms

simplicity
63 1.7

Being easy to understand and not complicated

Surface Forms

litany of tasks singular
litany of tasks plural

Morphology

litany + of + task

The meaning 'a lengthy, often tedious list of tasks' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'litany' (an extended, repetitive catalogue) with 'of tasks' using a standard noun + of + noun composition. Even though 'litany' often collocates with complaints, the compositional logic is clear and cross-linguistically common, so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The phrase litany of tasks comes from church practice: a litany was a long set of short prayers that people repeated. So a litany of tasks gives the picture of a long, repeating list of tasks, which is why it means 'a long and often boring list of jobs'.