Work out means to understand or calculate something, and also to exercise. With a problem, a price or a reason, “work out” means to reach the answer by thinking it through yourself. When it is about a person and sport, it means regular training, usually at the gym.
Want to use work out in conversation?
Write a sentence — we'll show the mistakes right away and suggest how to say it more naturally.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
work out + how/what/why...; work out + the answer/total; work it out; work out (= exercise) at the gym
- I can't work out how to change the language settings on this phone.
- Let's work out how much each of us owes for dinner.
- He works out at the gym three times a week before his shift.
What changed
First versionI spent an hour trying to work out with this maths problem.
RevisionI spent an hour trying to work out this maths problem.
In the meaning “understand”, “work out” is followed directly by what you are trying to understand: “work out this problem”. “With” may look right because we “deal with” a problem, but here it is not needed. Also, “work out with” is usually understood as exercising with someone or something: “work out with a trainer”.
If nothing follows “work out” and it is about a person, it almost always means exercise: She works out every morning. If it is followed by something to understand or calculate, it is the first meaning: She worked out the answer before anyone else.
Your turn
Nobody had a calculator, so Anna ___ the total in her head.
Show the answer
worked out — Anna did the sum in her head, on her own, and that is exactly “worked out”: she calculated it. “Found out” means getting a fact from a source, for example by asking or reading. It does not fit mental arithmetic.
Write about an everyday task you had to solve on your own. Say what exactly was unclear and how long it took you to understand it. Use “work out” in the meaning “understand”.
It took me twenty minutes to work out how to connect the new printer to my laptop.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.