Laborious

Definition: Laborious

Laborious

Adjective

1. Characterized by toilsome effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor"; "heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours on the project"; "set a punishing pace".

Date "laborious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references)

Etymology: Laborious \La*bo"ri*ous\, adjective. [Latin expression laboriosus,fr. labor labor: compare to the French expression laborieux.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Laborious

Synonyms: arduous (adj), backbreaking (adj), grueling (adj), gruelling (adj), hard (adj), heavy (adj), labourious (adj), punishing (adj), toilsome (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Difficulty	Adjective: difficult, not easy, hard, tough; troublesome, toilsome, irksome; operose, laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable; sooner said than done; more easily said than done, easier said than done.
Exertion	Laborious, operose, elaborate; strained; toilsome, troublesome, wearisome; uphill; herculean, gymnastic, palestric.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Laborious

English words defined with "laborious": arduous ♦ backbreaking, bypass ♦ Eke, eke out, Expiscate, extort ♦ Fagging ♦ get around, go around, grueling, gruelling ♦ hard, heavy ♦ laboriously, Laborless, Laborous, labourious, leaden, Lucubrate, lucubration, Lucubratory, lumbering ♦ plodder, plodding, ponderous, punishing ♦ short-circuit, slogger, squeeze out ♦ Toilful, toilsome, Travailous, trudger, Tuggingly ♦ wring from. (references)

Specialty definitions using "laborious": Blacksmith, Brush ♦ Coals ♦ Kettle ♦ Railroad ♦ Shovel. (references)

Etymologies containing "laborious": Laborous ♦ Travailous. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Double Honour Due To The Laborious Gospel Minister (Notable American Author Series - Part I) (reference) The Laborious Game (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Date	Quotation
John Locke	1690	But in beasts of prey the conjunction lasts longer: because the dam not being able well to subsist herself, and nourish her numerous off-spring by her own prey alone, a more laborious, as well as more dangerous way of living, than by feeding on grass, the assistance of the male is necessary to the maintenance of their common family, which cannot subsist till they are able to prey for themselves, but by the joint care of male and female. (Second Treatise of Government)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	This advance became more and more laborious.
Gulliver's Travels	Swift, Jonathan	That the life I had since led was laborious enough to kill an animal of ten times my strength.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Chad	Peanuts, sesame and shea nuts are widely used to produce oil through laborious traditional methods. (references)
Trade	Brazil	Product registration in Brazil is a laborious task. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Laborious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Laborious" is used about 194 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	100%	194	22,014

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "laborious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		i zellshëm (diligent, hard, industrious, sedulous, strenuous, studious, unsparing, zealous), i vështirë (awkward, convoluted, deep, difficult, exacting, formidable, hairy, hard, intractable, Kittle, labored, laboured, onerous, painful, parlous, recondite, rough, scabrous, stiff, ticklish, toilful, trying), i mundimshëm (labored, laboured, tiring, toilsome, troublesome, uncomfortable), i lodhshëm (arduous, dull, irksome, long winded, pernickety, tedious, tiresome, toilsome, troublesome, trying, wearing, wearisome). (various references)

Arabic		‏كادح (drudging, industrious, labor, laborer, labour, labourer, plodder, slogger), ‏كاد (assiduous, diligent, intrigue, persevering, plot, scheme, sedulous), ‏متعب (annoying, arduous, bothersome, burdensome, disturbing, exhaustive, fatiguing, inconvenient, onerous, strenuous, tired, tiresome, tiring, toilsome, troublesome, trying, vexing, wearisome, weary), ‏مجهد (arduous, exhausting, fatiguing, onerous, overwrought, strenuous, tiring, toilsome, wearing), ‏مجد (adoration, assiduous, canonize, celebrate, celebrity, diligent, enthrone, eulogize, exalt, extol, fame, glorify, glory, industrious, kudos, laud, laurels, luster, lustre, magnify, popularity, praise highly), ‏مرهق (arduous, burdened, dog tired, exacting, exhausted, exhausting, fatigued, fatiguing, grueling, onerous, operose, oppressed, oppressive, overtaxed, overtired, overworked, run down, strained, strenuous, stressed, tired, tiring, toil-worn, trying, wearing, wearisome, weary, worn, worn out), ‏وعث (arduous), ‏شاق (arduous, hard, malaise, onerous, painful, robust, stiff, strenuous, terrible, toilsome, troublesome, trying, uphill). (various references)

Bulgarian		трудолюбив (hardworking, industrious, plodding), труден (arduous, awkward, complex, difficile, difficult, dodgy, formidable, heavy, knotty, lively, painful, perplexed, perplexing, pick-and-shovel, rocky, sore, spiny, stroppy, taxing, thorny, ticklish, tight, tough, tricky, troublesome, uphill, warm), тежък (cumbrous, dense, difficult, distressing, faint, grave, grievous, grinding, hammering, hard, heavy, hefty, high, hulking, labored, laboured, leaden, lumping, lumpish, lumpy, massive, massy, muggy, onerous, painful, plodding, ponderous, robust, rugged, sad, severe, shrewd, sledgehammer, slow, smart, smashing, soggy, solemn, sore, stiff, stodgy, taxing, thorny, tight, tough, traumatic, trying, unwieldy, uphill, weighty), напрегнат (breathless, exacting, excited, intense, intent, nervy, overstrung, overwrought, strenuous, taut, tense, tight, uncool, uphill). (various references)

Chinese		辛勞 , 费力, 碌 (small stone, to employ, to hire, to record, to tape, to write down). (various references)

Czech		pracný (arduous, cumbersome, labor intensive, labored, laboring, labour intensive, laboured, labouring), namáhavý (arduous, gruelling, hard, labor intensive, labour intensive, painful, strenuous, toilsome, troublesome, trying, wearing). (various references)

Danish		den polarografiske metode kraever en omstaendelig manuel forberedelse,da det er noedvendigt at foraske det filter,hvorpaa proeven er absorberet,og genoploese proeven (calcination and then redissolving are necessary, since after absorption on filters, the polarographic method demands laborious manual preparatory work). (various references)

Dutch		de polarografische metode vereist een omslachtige voorbereiding, die met de hand moet geschieden, aangezien men, na de absorptie op filters, het monster moet calcineren envervolgens nogmaals oplossen (calcination and then redissolving are necessary, since after absorption on filters, the polarographic method demands laborious manual preparatory work). (various references)

Farsi		پرزحمت (Arduous, Bothersome, Studious, Troublesome, Troublous), ساعی (Active, Assiduous, Diligent, Industrious, Painstaking, Sedulous, Studious), زحمت کش (Durdge, Hardworking, Painstaking), دشوار (Arduous, Difficult, Hard, Inexplicable, Intolerable, Onerous, Slippery, Sore, Spiny, Sticky, Strait, Tough, Uphill). (various references)

Finnish		vaivalloinen (arduous, difficult, hard, onerous, troublesome, trying, wearisome), työläs (arduous, hard, heavy, tough, troublesome), suuritöinen, isotöinen. (various references)

French		laborieux (laboured), pénible, dur. (various references)

German		arbeitsam (active, hard working, hardworking, industrious, plodding). (various references)

Greek		κοπιώδησ (toilsome), κοπιαστικόσ (fatiguing), φίλεργοσ (sedulous), επίπονοσ (arduous, toilsome). (various references)

Hebrew		מי�'ע (grueling, gruelling, illsome, tiresome, toilsome, uphill, wearisome), עוב�" קש�", חרוץ (active, ambitious, assiduous, diligent, industrious, natty, sedulous). (various references)

Hungarian		fáradságos (arduous, cumbersome, cumbrous, hard, painful, stiff, tough, troublesome), szorgalmas (assiduous, busy, diligent, hard working, hardworking, hard-working, industrious, sedulous, studious), nehéz (burdensome, complicated, cumbersome, cumbrous, damper, difficult, grave, grueling, gruelling, hard, hard case, heavy, hefty, herculean, inconvenient, it's a bad job!, knotty, onerous, ponderous, stiff, stodgy, teaser, thorny, to be bunkered, to be hard to please, tough, trying). (various references)

Italian		laborioso (active, hard working, hardworking, industrious, labored, laboured, toilsome, working), faticoso (arduous, arduously, difficult, grindingly, grueling, gruelling, hard, killing, labored, laboured, stiff, strenuous, tiresome, tiring, toilsome, uphill, wearisome). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		大儀 (state ceremony). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		たいぎ (boxing and jujitsu, great cause, justice, moral law, state ceremony). (various references)

Korean		힘�" . (various references)

Manx		trome (bold, burdensome, close, close oppressive, crippling, crippling burden, deep, deep-drawn, dense, dense of smoke, difficult, emphatic, expectant, expecting, grave, grievous, gruelling, hard, harsh, heavy, heavyweight, high pressure, intense, onerous, ponderous, pregnant, rough of sea, severe, sledge-hammer, steep, stodgy, substantial, sweated, wearying, weighty, with child), doccaragh (arduous, hard, inconvenient). (various references)

Norwegian		strevsom. (various references)

Pig Latin		aboriouslay.(various references)

Portuguese		laborioso (active, hardworking, industrious, labored, laboured, ponderous, sedulous), trabalhador (active, blue collar worker, diligent, full-timer, hand, hardworking, industrious, jobber, journeyman, labor intensive, laborer, labour intensive, labourer, operative, painstaking selection, practise, sedulous, toiler, worker, working, working man, workman), mão-de-obra intensiva (labourite), fatigante (grueling, gruelling, sweaty, tiresome, tiring, trying, wearing), diligente (active, convinced, diligent, earnest, hardworking, in action, industrious, painstaking, prompt, sedulous, studious), afanoso (difficult, hard, inconvenient, painstaking). (various references)

Romanian		laborios (arduous, hard, hard working, laboriously, toilsome), muncitor (active, hard working, industrious, Jack, journeyman, laborer, laboring, labourer, labouring, operative, operose, toiler, worker, working, workman), greu (annoying, arduous, awkward, burden, burdensome, busy, clumsy, dangerously, difficult, difficulty, fatiguing, gravely, grievous, hard, hardly, heavily, heavy, inconvenient, labored, laboured, leaden, lot, massive, massy, near, onerous, oppressive, painful, parlous, precarious, punitive, reluctantly, scarcely, seriously, severe, solid, stiff, stodgy, stolid, strenuous, stuffy, ticklish, toilful, tough, troublesome, trying, uneasy, uphill, wearisome, weary, weight, weighty). (various references)

Russian		усердный (assiduous, industrious, sedulous, zealous), трудный (arduous, baffling, difficult, formidable, hard, labored, laboured, man-sized, narrow, painful, toilful, toilsome, trying, unmanageable), вымученный (labored, laboured), многотрудный. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		težak (bulky, crushing, difficile, difficult, formidable, grave, hard, heavy, hefty, kittle, labored, laboured, leaden, lumbering, ponderous, punishing, rough, swingeing, trying, uneasy, weighty), mučan (heavy, nauseous, painful, teasing, thorny, troublesome, troublous, uneasy). (various references)

Spanish		laborioso (active, hardworking, heavy, industrious, labor intensive, labour intensive, plodding, ponderous, toilful, toilsome). (various references)

Swedish		jobbig (tough). (various references)

Thai		ที่ใช้แรงงานมาก. (various references)

Turkish		zahmetli (demanding, drudging, exacting, exhausting, exhaustive, fatiguing, grueling, gruelling, incommodious, inconvenient, labored, laboring, laboured, labouring, lucubratory, onerous, painful, toilful, toilsome, troublesome, troublous, trying, uphill, with an effort), yorucu (back breaking, drudging, exhausting, exhaustive, fatiguing, grueling, gruelling, irksome, labored, laboring, laboured, labouring, languorous, painful, strenuous, tiresome, tiring, toilful, toilsome, trying, wearing, wearisome, weary, with an effort), çok çalışan (hardworking, labored, laboured), çalışkan (active, arduous, assiduous, diligent, earnest, energetic, full of action, hardworking, industrious, labored, laboured, sedulous, strenuous, studious). (various references)

Ukranian		стомливий (exhausting, fatiguing, irksome, languorous, tedious, tiresome, tiring, toilsome, trying, tucked up, weariful, wearing, weary), важкий (arduous, awkward, baffling, chargeable, complex, difficult, hard, heavy, heavyweight, leaden, muggy, near, opulent, ponderous, robust, sweaty, toilful, toilsome, trying, wall eyed, walloping, weighty), вимучений (labored, laboured), працьовитий (industrious, plodding). (various references)

Vietnamese		siêng năng (assiduous, diligent, industrious), gian khổ nặng nề, chăm chỉ, chịu khó khó nhọc, cần cù (diligent, industrious). (various references)

Welsh		llafurus (arduous, painstaking, toilsome). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	asketikos. (various references)
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	laboriosa, laboriosae, laboriose. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language	Date	Source	Leviticus Chapter 23, Verse 35
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Kai h hmera h prwth klhth agia pan ergon latreuton ou poihsete
Latin	405	Vulgate	Dies primus vocabitur celeberrimus atque sanctissimus omne opus servile non facietis
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	The first day shal be clepid moost solempne and moost holy, alle seruyle werkes ye shulen not do in it;
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	The first daye shalbe an holy feast, so that ye shall do no laborious worke therein.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	On the first day shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work in it.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	On the first day there will be a holy meeting: do no field-work.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Leviticus Chapter 23, Verse 35
Bulgarian	На първия ден да има свето събрание, и никаква слугинска работа да не вършите.
Cebuano	Sa nahauna nga adlaw adunay usa ka balaan nga pagkatigum: walay bisan unsa nga bulohaton nga inalagad nga pagabuhaton ninyo.
Chinese	第一日當有聖會． �"� 麼勞碌的工都不可作。
Croatian	Prvoga dana, u dan svetoga zbora, nikakva težaèkog posla nemojte raditi.
Danish	På den første Dag skal der holdes Højtidsstævne, I må intet Arbejde gøre.
Dutch	Op den eersten dag zal een heilige samenroeping zijn; geen dienstwerk zult gij doen.
Finnish	Ensimmäisenä päivänä pidettäköön pyhä kokous; älkää silloin yhtäkään arkiaskaretta toimittako.
French	Le premier jour, il y aura une sainte convocation: vous ne ferez aucune oeuvre servile.
German	Der erste Tag soll heilig heißen, daß ihr zusammenkommt; keine Dienstarbeit sollt ihr tun.
Haitian Creole	Premye jou a, n'a reyini tout moun pou adore Bondye. Pesonn p'ap fè gwo travay jou sa a.
Hungarian	Az elsõ napon szent gyülekezés legyen, semmi robota munkát ne végezzetek.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Selama tujuh hari itu, setiap hari kamu harus mempersembahkan kurban makanan. Pada hari yang pertama dan yang kedelapan kamu harus mengadakan pertemuan untuk beribadat dan mempersembahkan kurban makanan kepada TUHAN. Janganlah melakukan pekerjaan berat pada hari itu.
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Pada hari yang pertama itu akan ada perhimpuan yang suci; jangan kamu bekerja pada hari itu.
Italian	Il primo giorno vi sar� una santa convocazione; non farete alcun lavoro servile.
Korean	첫 � 에 �" 성 회 가 있 을 지 니 너 희 �" 아 무 노 동 도 하 지 말 지 며
Maori	Hei te ra tuatahi he huihuinga tapu: kaua e mahia tetahi mahi a te kaimahi.
Modern Greek	Την πρωτην ημεραν θελει εισθαι συγκαλεσις αγια· ουδεν εργον δουλευτικον θελετε καμει.
Norwegian	På den første dag skal det være en hellig sammenkomst; I skal ikke gjøre nogen arbeidsgjerning.
Portuguese	No primeiro dia haverá santa convocação; nenhum trabalho servil fareis.
Rumanian	Kn ziua kntki sq fie o adunare sfkntq: sq nu faceyi nici o lucrare de slugq kn timpul ei.
Russian	Ч � ЕТЧЩК �"ЕОШ УЧСЭЕООПЕ УП�'ТБОЙЕ, ОЙЛБЛПК ТБ�'ПФЩ ОЕ ТБ�'ПФБКФЕ;
Spanish	El primer día habrá asamblea sagrada. No haréis ningún trabajo laboral.
Swedish	På den första dagen skall man hålla en helig sammankomst; ingen arbetssyssla skolen I då göra.
Thai	จะมีการประชุมบริสุทธิ์ในวันแรก เจ้าอย่าทำงานหนัก
Ukrainian	Першого дня святі збори, жодного робочого зайняття не будете робити.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "laborious": laboriously, laboriousness, laboriousnesses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Laborious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: laborius, Leoribus, Liborious, Litorius, luborious, lubrious. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "laborious" (pronounced lubô"rēus)
5	-ô" r ē u s	glorious, inglorious, meritorious, notorious, Sartorius, victorious.
4	-r ē u s	curious, deleterious, delirious, denarius, furious, gregarious, hilarious, illustrious, imperious, industrious, injurious, lugubrious, mysterious, nefarious, pancreas, penurious, precarious, serious, spurious, various, vicarious, vitreous.
3	-ē u s	acrimonious, alias, amphibious, aqueous, bilious, coleus, commodious, contemporaneous, copious, courteous, devious, dubious, envious, erroneous, extraneous, fastidious, felonious, gaseous, harmonious, hideous, homogeneous, igneous, ignominious, impervious, insidious, instantaneous, invidious, lascivious, luxurious, melodious, miscellaneous, nucleus, oblivious, obsequious, obvious, odious, percutaneous, previous, punctilious, radius, sanctimonious, simultaneous, spontaneous, studious, supercilious, tedious, unceremonious.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-b-i-l-o-o-r-s-u"
	-2 letters: bailors, burials, labours, ooralis, railbus, robalos, suboral.
	-3 letters: airbus, arioso, bailor, borals, brails, brasil, broils, burial, bursal, isobar, labors, labour, libras, obolus, oorali, robalo, sailor, souari, urbias, urials.
	-4 letters: aboil, abris, arils, auris, bails, basil, birls, blurs, boars, boils, bolar, bolas, bolos, bolus, boors, boral, boras, brail, brios, broil, broos, buras, burls, bursa, labor, lairs, laris, liars, libra, liras, lobar, lobos, loris, louis, lours, obias, oboli, obols, olios, orals, rails, rials, roils, sabir, slurb, solar, sural, urbia, urial.
	-5 letters: abos, abri, ails, airs, albs, also, arbs, aril, bail, bals, bars, bias, bios, birl, blur, boar, boas, boil, bola, bolo, boor, boos, bora, bras, brio, bris, broo, bros, bura, burl, burs, isba, labs, lair, lari, lars, liar, libs, lira, lobo, lobs, loos, lour, oars, obia, obis, obol, oils, olio, oral, orbs, osar, ours, rail, rial, rias, ribs, robs, roil, rubs, sail, sari, saul, sial, silo, slab, slob, slub, slur, soar, soil, sola, soli, solo, sora, sorb, sori, soul, sour, suba, sura, urbs, ursa.
	Words containing the letters "a-b-i-l-o-o-r-s-u"
	+2 letters: laboriously.
	+3 letters: ailurophobes, bromouracils, urbanologies, urbanologist.
	+4 letters: ailurophobias, bibliolatrous, laboriousness, urbanologists.
	+5 letters: claustrophobia, claustrophobic, macroglobulins.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.