make, production, prepare, build
作 centers on bringing something into being through deliberate action: making, producing, preparing, or building. The meanings all share the idea of active creation or construction.
作 combines 亻 (person) with 乍, which likely contributes the sound and carries an early sense of making or doing. The modern form keeps this person-acting structure.
A person 亻 beside 乍, which looks like a saw or tool, suggests a person making something with their hands.
For サク, imagine a person making a sack to carry their tools: sack -> サク, and the person 亻 is busy building it.
to make; to produce; to manufacture; to build; to construct
work (e.g. book, film, painting, composition); piece; production; opus
making; producing; manufacturing; building; construction; make; structure
work (e.g. of art); piece; production
work; operation; task
work (film, book)
tactics; strategy
operation; management; handling
making (a report, plan, contract, etc.); drawing up; writing out; preparing; creating (a file, website, account, etc.)
original work
new work; new production; new composition; new creation; new title
author; writer; novelist; artist
writing (a book); book; (literary) work; writings
manufacture; production
creation; production; creative work (novel, film, etc.); original work; (creative) writing
creator (of a work); author; writer; artist; composer; playwright; dramatist
action; operation; process; agency; effect; function
movement (of the body); action; motion; gesture
handicraft
composition (of music); setting; writing music
one's own work; making by oneself
masterpiece; masterwork
side effect; adverse reaction
masterpiece; masterwork; chef d'oeuvre; fine piece of work
handmade; handcrafted; homemade; homegrown
operation; functioning; running
(writing) song lyrics
fit; attack; spasm; ictus; paroxysm; seizure; stroke
trial manufacture; experiment; test piece; prototype
large-scale work; voluminous work
to manufacture; to produce; to raise (crops)
writing (an essay, prose, etc.); composition
crop; crops; (agricultural) produce; farm products
style (of a work, author, artist, etc.); characteristics
manners; etiquette; propriety
crops; agricultural produce
cultivation; farming
collaboration; joint work
manufacture; production
fiction; made-up story; fable; fabrication; myth
to build up; to complete; to construct; to create; to put together
abundant harvest; bumper crop
painstaking piece of work; work of great effort; tour de force; outstanding work
plagiarism; plagiarised work
farmwork
rice cultivation; rice crop
planting a field with the same crop each year; repeated cultivation; monocropping
fine (piece of) work; excellent work
poor crop; bad harvest; crop failure
posthumous works
excellent (piece of) work
reaction
bad harvest; poor crop
planting
forced laugh; forced smile
toil; labor; labour; laborious task
recent work; latest work
crop (conditions); harvest; yield
trilogy
most important work (of a writer, artist, etc.); representative work; masterpiece; magnum opus; major work
planted area
composer
work environment
rice-crop index
playwriting
spy; agent provocateur; covert operative
machine tool
easy; simple; ready
copyright
manufacturing cost; production cost