labour

The word “labour” means hard physical or mental effort put into a task; work. In plain terms, hard work in general, workers as a group, a political party representing them, or the process of giving birth.

“Labour” is pronounced LAY-buh (/ˈleɪ.bɚ/ in IPA).

Here is “labour” used in a sentence: “Years of labour went into restoring the old cottage.”

Words with a similar meaning to “labour” include swink, toil and work.

Depending on how it is used, “labour” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “labour” comes from Latin. From Old French labor and Latin labor, both meaning "work" or "toil.".

“Labour” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A2 level.

“Labour” has 4 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: hard physical or mental effort put into a task; work.

'Work' is any activity done to achieve a result and can be light or hard, physical or mental. 'Labour' stresses hard, tiring, often physical effort. All labour is work, but not all work is labour — answering emails is work, while digging a ditch is labour.

They are the same word with different spellings. 'Labour' is the British and Commonwealth spelling, used across the UK, Australia, and Canada. 'Labor' is the American spelling. The meaning and pronunciation are identical; only the presence of the letter 'u' changes between the two.

Beyond hard effort, 'labour' can mean the workforce as a whole, as in 'the cost of labour' or a shortage of skilled labour. It also names the final stage of pregnancy, when a woman gives birth — 'she went into labour.' Context makes the intended sense clear.

'The beautiful garden was the result of years of labour' means years of hard, sustained effort went into it. Other examples include 'the job involves heavy manual labour' and 'their labour finally paid off,' each pointing to demanding physical or mental work.