works

The word “works” means a factory or industrial site, or the group of such facilities belonging to one operation. In plain terms, can mean a factory, the inner mechanism of a machine, or informally "everything included.".

“Works” is pronounced wurks (/wɝks/ in IPA).

Here is “works” used in a sentence: “The steel works closed down in the 1980s.”

“Works” is a noun.

“Works” is a very common word in modern English.

“Works” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a factory or industrial site, or the group of such facilities belonging to one operation.

Heavy-industry sites often carry the word: a steelworks makes steel, a gasworks once produced gas, an ironworks shapes iron, and waterworks supply and clean water. You might also hear 'the brickworks' or simply 'the works' when local people mean the large factory or plant that dominates their town.

The two overlap, but 'works' usually suggests heavy or large-scale industry and often forms a compound, as in steelworks or gasworks. Factory is the more general, everyday word for any building where goods are manufactured. A small unit making furniture is a factory, but rarely a works.

In this factory sense 'works' looks plural but usually behaves as a singular unit: 'the steelworks is closing' is standard. It can take a plural verb when several separate sites are meant. The same form also serves as its own plural, so one works and two works are both correct.