Which to use
“laboured” is a verb and “labours” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,738
- “laboured” frequency rank
- #42,229
- “labours” frequency rank
- 84967
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laboured | labours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of labour | plural of labour |
Where the eye mixes laboured and labours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between laboured and labours
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laboured is /ˈleɪ.bɚd/ while labours is /ˈleɪbɚz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84967, 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/. labours is at rank #42,229, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪbɚz/.
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 84967, this pair ranks #11,188 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of laboured vs labours
Shared letters: abloru. Private to "laboured": de. Private to "labours": s.
"laboured" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "labours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "laboured" and "labours" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "laboured" vs "labours" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "laboured" and "labours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "laboured" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "labours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #11,188 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laboured" and "labours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "labours vs Latour". 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 #11,188 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.