Labor or labour?
labor is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of labour”; labour is a noun meaning “An effort expended on a particular task; toil, work”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) labor is about as common as labour.
What is the difference between labor and labour?
| labor | labour | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | USAlternative spelling of labour | An effort expended on a particular task; toil, work That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort To toil, to work |
| Example | none recorded | Near-synonyms: childbirth, parturition |
| Forms | labors | labours |
| Pronunciation | /ˈleɪ.bɚ/ | /ˈleɪ.bə/ /ˈleɪ.bɚ/ |
| In writing | 59 times per million words | 50 times per million words |
Sources: labor and labour in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of labor and labour
labor
- 1
USAlternative spelling of labour
- 2
USAlternative spelling of labour
labour
- 1
An effort expended on a particular task; toil, work
- 2
To toil, to work
- 3
That which requires hard work for its accomplishment; that which demands effort
- 4
To belabour, to emphasise or expand upon (a point in a debate, etc)
I think we've all got the idea. There's no need to labour the point
- 5
Workers in general; the working class, the workforce; sometimes specifically the labour movement, organised labour
- 6
To be oppressed with difficulties or disease; to do one's work under conditions which make it especially hard or wearisome; to move slowly, as against opposition, or under a burden
- 7
A political party or force aiming or claiming to represent the interests of labour
- 8
To suffer the pangs of childbirth
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, labor or labour?
labor appears 59 times per million words; labour 50 times per million words.
labor 59 times per million wordslabour 50 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search labor vs labour?
“labor vs labour” is searched about 2,400 times a month on Google and 110 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“labour vs labor”, “labor or labour”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.