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groundwork

UK/ˈɡɹaʊndˌwɜːɹk/US/ˈɡɹaʊndˌwɜːɹk/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,895 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: groundworks

Groundwork is the preparatory work everything else is built on. Lay the groundwork, the groundwork is done, do the groundwork first.

It almost always appears as lay the groundwork, and the point of the phrase is that the work is invisible in the result. In building, groundwork is the literal trade of foundations and drains before anything rises.

Definitions of groundwork

  1. 1noungroundworkThe preparatory work everything else is built on.B2+

    “Months of careful groundwork went into planning the expedition.”

groundwork is a preparation.

Where it comes from

Ground plus work, from the foundation laid under a building.

From ground + work.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

groundwork in the wild

  • Despite their cancellation, the XB-15 and Y1B-20 laid the groundwork for the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

    Boeing Y1B-20

  • The track bed or trackbed (or railroad bed) is the groundwork onto which a railway track is laid.

    Track bed

  • From time to time more material was added to this groundwork, until the treatise was concluded on the redaction of the whole Mishnah.

    Eduyot (Talmud)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.