作业(zuò yè) - homework in Mandarin

作业 (zuòyè) is homework, the work a teacher sets to be done outside class. 作 (zuò) means "to do, to make" and 业 (yè) means "work, occupation, task", the same character in 工作 (gōngzuò), "job, to work", and 专业 (zhuānyè), "major, speciality".

The everyday verb pairing is 做作业 (zuò zuòyè), "to do homework", which looks repetitive to an English eye because 作 (zuò) and 做 (zuò) are homophones with related but distinct roles: 做 is the general verb "to do", while 作 mostly appears locked inside compounds like this one rather than standing alone as a verb in modern speech.

A teacher hands it out with 布置作业 (bùzhì zuòyè), "to assign homework", and a student hands it in with 交作业 (jiāo zuòyè), "to submit homework"; both collocations are worth learning alongside the noun itself.