tasked

Tasked is the past tense and past participle of the verb task. It means to be assigned a task or responsibility, or to be charged with completing a duty. In everyday and formal writing, it is used with the prepositions with or to: “The analyst was tasked with validating the data” or “The committee tasked the researchers to gather further evidence.” The phrase “tasked with” is the most common way to indicate the scope of the assignment; “tasked to” is also encountered, though less standard in some registers.

In addition to its verbal use, tasked can function as a passive descriptor in a sentence such as “the individuals tasked with oversight.” In those cases, it retains the sense of obligation and authority associated with the assignment. The related noun forms are task (the assignment itself) and tasking (the act or process of assigning tasks or of performing tasks).

Origin and usage notes: Task as a noun has historical roots in Middle English, with influences from Old North French, and the verb sense to assign a task developed in English. The form tasked is simply the inflected past tense and past participle used to place actions in time or voice. Tasked appears most often in formal, professional, or governmental writing, where it conveys responsibility and delegated authority.