Which to use
“laboured” is a verb and “labourer” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,738
- “laboured” frequency rank
- #31,235
- “labourer” frequency rank
- 73973
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laboured | labourer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of labour | British standard spelling of laborer. |
Where the eye mixes laboured and labourer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. laboured and labourer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: laboured vs labourer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laboured is /ˈleɪ.bɚd/ while labourer is /ˈleɪ.bə.ɹə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “laboured” becomes r in “labourer”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laboured is recorded at frequency rank #42,738, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈleɪ.bɚd/. labourer is at rank #31,235, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪ.bə.ɹə/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 73973, this pair ranks #37,822 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of laboured vs labourer
Shared letters: abeloru. Private to "laboured": d. Private to "labourer": -.
"laboured" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "labourer" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "laboured" and "labourer" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "laboured" or "labourer"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "laboured" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "labourer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,822 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laboured" and "labourer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laboured vs labours". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #37,822 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.