Q: The word “works” (meaning “factory”) is a hard nut to crack. It looks plural but acts singular. Can it be used to speak about two factories? And how did it come to mean a factory in the first place?
A: The noun “work” has been used in both singular and plural forms to mean a factory or plant since the 16th century, but the plural “works” is the usual form now and can refer to one or more industrial sites.
As the online Merriam-Webster dictionary explains, “works” is “plural in form but singular or plural in construction” when it refers to “a place where industrial labor is carried on.” M-W has these examples: “got a job at a cement/lead works” … “The local steel works have shut down.”
And here’s a recent example we’ve found where the term refers to more than one plant: “Union plans to escalate action over job losses at two steelworks in Wales” (headline in The Guardian, London, June 2, 2024).
The noun was plural when first used to mean “an establishment or premises in which industrial or manufacturing processes are carried out,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
The OED notes that the term is often “the second element in compounds.” In the dictionary’s earliest example, the compound “iron workes” is used in a statute from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to protect forests needed to provide wood for shipbuilding.
The citation refers to an exception granted for woods in Surrey that a landowner “preserued and coppised [periodically cut back] for the vse of his Iron workes.” From Act 23 Elizabeth I, known as the Preservation of Wood Act of 1580 (passed in 1581).
The earliest example in the OED for the singular form used in this sense, which we’ve expanded, refers to an Englishman who traveled to France to learn the French method of making glass:
“he return’d, and set up a Glass-work, wherein he far outdid the French, his Teachers.” From the “glass” entry in Cyclopædia; or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (7th edition, 1751), by Ephraim Chambers.
The latest citation in the OED uses the plural form in referring to a single plant: “The process sees sewage arriving at the works for treatment” (from The Independent, London, Oct. 5, 2010).
If you’d like to read more, we’ve written several posts over the years about other nouns with plural forms that can be used in singular or plural expressions, including “headquarters,” “whereabouts,” and “scissors.”
And in a 2012 post, “Clothed minded,” we discuss why garments with legs (or leg holes) are generally plural, while those with arms (or arm holes) are usually singular.
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