Word
menial
Phoneticsme·nial
US/ˈminiəɫ/
UK/mˈiːnɪəl/
Definition
n. a job that is very boring, hard, or low in status. You use this to describe work that feels like a chore rather than a meaningful task.
n. a task or job that is considered low-status, tedious, or unskilled. Often used to describe work that is perceived as a burden or a lack of personal value.
Examples
“The office work felt like a menial task to him.”
“After years of working a menial job, she decided to go back to school to learn a new trade.”
“The protagonist's journey from a life of menial labor to one of intellectual pursuit serves as a central theme of the novel, highlighting the social mobility of the era.”
Examples
simple
“The office work felt like a menial task to him.”
contextual
“After years of working a menial job, she decided to go back to school to learn a new trade.”
complex
“The protagonist's journey from a life of menial labor to one of intellectual pursuit serves as a central theme of the novel, highlighting the social mobility of the era.”
Etymology
From Middle English meyneal, from Anglo-Norman mesnal, from maisnee (“household”), from Vulgar Latin *mānsiōnāta, from Latin mānsiō (“house”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.