labor 1 of 2

noun

ˈlā-bər How to pronounce labor (audio)
Definition of labornext
1
as in job
a dull, unpleasant, or difficult piece of work one of the labors of Hercules in classical mythology was to clean out the stables of King Augeas

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in effort
the active use of energy in producing a result a superhuman amount of labor must have gone into designing and building the pyramids of Egypt

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in toil
very hard or unpleasant work a political dissident forced to do six months of hard labor in the salt mines as punishment

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in childbirth
the act or process of giving birth to children the mother's labor lasted for six hours

Synonyms & Similar Words
5
as in production
something produced by physical or intellectual effort a small, personal film that was clearly a labor of love for the director and actors

Synonyms & Similar Words

labor

2 of 2

verb

as in to struggle
to devote serious and sustained effort the young lawyer labored most of the weekend over the difficult legal brief

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Synonym Chooser

How does the noun labor contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of labor are drudgery, grind, toil, travail, and work. While all these words mean "activity involving effort or exertion," labor applies to physical or intellectual work involving great and often strenuous exertion.

farmers demanding fair compensation for their labor

Where would drudgery be a reasonable alternative to labor?

The words drudgery and labor can be used in similar contexts, but drudgery suggests dull and irksome labor.

an editorial job with a good deal of drudgery

When is it sensible to use grind instead of labor?

The words grind and labor are synonyms, but do differ in nuance. Specifically, grind implies labor exhausting to mind or body.

the grind of the assembly line

When might toil be a better fit than labor?

The synonyms toil and labor are sometimes interchangeable, but toil implies prolonged and fatiguing labor.

his lot would be years of back-breaking toil

When could travail be used to replace labor?

While in some cases nearly identical to labor, travail is bookish for labor involving pain or suffering.

years of travail were lost when the house burned

When would work be a good substitute for labor?

Although the words work and labor have much in common, work may imply activity of body, of mind, of a machine, or of a natural force.

too tired to do any work

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of labor
Noun
Wage talks redux The Bangladeshi government will soon form a wage board to determine a new minimum wage for garment workers, labor and employment secretary Md. — Jasmin Malik Chua, Footwear News, 26 Oct. 2026 County workers and labor unions continue to push for a project labor agreement to require more protections for workers to be part of the deal. — Akira Kyles, Washington Post, 26 Oct. 2026
Verb
And workers have now spent over 1 million hours laboring on an infrastructure project whose price tag has surpassed $900 million. — Robert Tann, Denver Post, 24 Sep. 2026 McNeely’s portrait of a laboring mother, swathed in glowing fields of chartreuse, outshines (again, literally) art history’s greats. — Emily Watlington, ARTnews.com, 18 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for labor
Recent Examples of Synonyms for labor
  1. job
  2. effort
  3. toil
  4. childbirth
  5. production
  6. struggle
  7. headache
  8. work
Noun
  • Our job, before and after AI, is building safe and useful products for human beings, and engineers are still best suited for that.
    — Brian Jenney, IEEE Spectrum, 23 Oct. 2026
  • The Commission’s sovereignty framework considers the extent to which investment, jobs and value creation remain within the EU and European Economic Area.
    — Margot Edelman, Fortune, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of job
Noun
  • The $60 million ceiling covers a three-year development effort, but the announcement does not establish a final procurement value.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Over the past two months, amid efforts to find what could be more than $20 billion to recapitalize insurance funds, Walter has sold his controlling interest in the Lakers and a minority share of Chelsea, the English Premier League club.
    — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of effort
Noun
  • Celebrities brought their own takes on toil and trouble to the red carpet, though.
    — Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 27 Sep. 2026
  • Diana went on vacations to get away from her intense public life (and private marital toil).
    — Katherine J Igoe, InStyle, 26 Sep. 2026
Definition of toil
Noun
  • Cantrell has a history of unattended or undisclosed pregnancy and childbirth and was close to delivering, according to the relative’s account, described in a police record.
    — Emerson Clarridge, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 Oct. 2026
  • Older Armenian beliefs imagined that supernatural beings could threaten the woman after childbirth or harm her baby.
    — Shushan Karapetian, The Conversation, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of childbirth
Noun
  • That production is the wrinkle that elevates Seventhirty’s lyrics from modern dating podcast material to pure melodrama.
    — Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 21 Oct. 2026
  • The company is executing multiple expansion projects at its East Camden site, including the Arkansas Advanced Propulsion Facilities and two new facilities to support PAC-3 propulsion production.
    — Rafael Escalera Montoto, Arkansas Online, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of production
Verb
  • But even when Antetokounmpo was on the court in the second half, the Heat struggled.
    — Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 25 Oct. 2026
  • The high prices are adding to pain for cattle ranchers in western states, who were already struggling with persistent drought.
    — Anna King, NPR, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of struggle
Noun
  • Those headaches create headwinds, but the underlying story provides support.
    — Michael Khouw, CNBC, 23 Oct. 2026
  • Residents have reported symptoms including burning in the eyes, lungs and sinuses, bad headaches and nausea.
    — Lana Zak, CBS News, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of headache
Noun
  • The announcement did not specify when testing would begin or disclose results from previous development work.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Every order completed by a robot represents work that potentially could have gone to a human courier.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 24 Oct. 2026
Definition of work

Phrases Containing labor

Browse Nearby Words

labile
labor
labor camp
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Labor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/labor. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on labor

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about labor

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of grotesque

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All