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.
See Examples For:
The bottom didn’t drop out of the labor market after a poor September U.S. jobs report.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
The strong August employment report had raised hopes that the labor market was on the upswing after two years of malaise.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
Thankfully, America’s creative labor force tirelessly stewards that sense of creative provocation and patriotic inquiry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
Traditional studios and TV networks have shed tens of thousands of workers in recent years after the streaming bubble burst and twin labor strikes paused projects.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
And when the White House officially reopened to the public on New Year’s Day 1818, the restored mansion—like the original—had been built with slave labor.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
Much has been said, notably by the critic Harold Bloom, about the agony of the artist who labors under the shadow of the greats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
The box is carved with scenes of the labors of Hercules, while the lid is decorated with monumental reclining figures of the deceased.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025
A friend gave her a wire bakers rack and Scott started to fill it with the fruits of her labors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2025
Flynn deserves a break from his heroic theatrical labors, but he’s not done yet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2024
The next day he would be flying: he never should have taken the job; it was too simple to be worth his labors.
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
The noise of backhoes, cranes and bulldozers echoed across Colombia's quake-hit cities on Sunday as workers labored to remove rubble, though the chance of finding survivors was slim a week after the disaster.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
These unsung masters labored on the magnificent frescoes that cover virtually every inch of the two-story Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026
Last Thanksgiving, Megan Thee Stallion labored for days to prepare an elaborate holiday dinner for then-boyfriend Klay Thompson and his family.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2026
In many years on dairy farms, the worker often labored for 10 hours with no breaks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
Most lived near the fields where they labored, far from the main house.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
One minute, she’d been in the bathroom, laboring through a contraction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2026
We know that underneath, we’re laboring frantically to keep going — sometimes, even just to stay afloat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 26, 2026
This base allowed to soar last Sunday’s spire of victory at another Jack Hughes’s laboring hand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 27, 2026
"For decades, while laboring in the vineyards of the community, he inspired us to keep hope alive in the struggle for liberty and justice for all," the Democrat said.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2026
Even at night, the wrecks glowed with work, people laboring by torchlight as they continued the steady job of disassembly.
From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi
Vocabulary lists containing labor
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Labor Day Lexicon: Words That Put You To Work
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Working Together: The Language of Unions
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