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.
The labor market balances companies’ demand for workers against the supply of people available to work.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026
The strong May jobs report released Friday, which showed an improving U.S. labor market, is only likely to strengthen their focus on inflation.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 6, 2026
And finally, they examine why Spain’s unemployment rate has dropped significantly and what that tells us about the relationship between immigration and the labor market.
From Slate • Jun. 6, 2026
But proponents of this theory point out that faster hiring should be pushing down the unemployment rate—that is, unless labor supply were rising, too.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026
He had gained two years of free labor.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
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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