labor
Usage
What are other ways to say labor?
Labor particularly denotes hard manual work: backbreaking labor; arduous labor. Drudgery suggests continuous, dreary, and dispiriting work, especially of a menial or servile kind: the drudgery of household tasks. Toil suggests wearying or exhausting labor: toil that breaks down the worker's health. Work is the general word and may apply to exertion that is either easy or hard: fun work; heavy work.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
For them, labor was a spiritual act, function guided form, beauty lay in simplicity, and well-designed objects need never change.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 4, 2026
Stepping back, the labor market in many ways has narrowed to a single engine.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
Much of March's recovery was fueled by health care jobs, which have remained resilient even as labor demand has dropped in other sectors.
From Barron's • Apr. 3, 2026
Friday’s labor report for March showed a healthy gain of 178,000 net new jobs, a welcome contrast to February’s 133,000 decline.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
When my mother was pregnant, right up until the time of labor, she would go out and do chores.
From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola
From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
