Synonyms

workflow

American

[wurk-floh] / ˈwɜrkˌfloʊ /

noun

the flow or amount of work to and from an office, department, or employee.

Usage

What is a workflow? A workflow is most often a series of repeatable steps in completing a work project, such as creating a product (like a computer) or performing a service (like writing an article). For example, the steps in writing a news article might include:

Receive an assignment from your editor.
Research the topic.
Interview people involved.
Write an outline of the article.
Write the article.
Edit the article.
Hand in the article to your editor.

When a workflow involves more than one person, it will describe all the steps to be done as well as who will do them. It might also describe how long each step should take, where any physical objects should be moved to (as in manufacturing), and other details important to managing the workflow.Workflow is also the amount of work one or more workers or an entire organization has at one time, as in The machine shop’s workflow was so high that they hired temporary help.Example: The consultant was able to change the steps in our manufacturing workflow, and now we are sending out product orders on time.

Etymology

Origin of workflow

First recorded in 1945–50; work + flow

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Those can take the form of intentional pauses to assess workflow and sequencing work to reduce AI fragmentation.

From MarketWatch

He suggested that determining the AI leader of the future may not come down to a lab’s proprietary training data, but rather the one whose model is best integrated into enterprise and user workflows.

From MarketWatch

“It remains very difficult to replicate or displace much of the knowledge, metadata and workflows incumbent systems have amassed,” analysts at Deutsche Bank wrote this week.

From The Wall Street Journal

The main complaint was the “additional workflow burden” experienced by the users — an indication that whatever the virtues of the new technology, they didn’t outweigh the time and effort needed to use them.

From Los Angeles Times

"We expect every app, every workload, every user to be using AI in some part of their workflow" in just a few years, Alistair Speirs, a manager for infrastructure at Microsoft, told AFP.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023