laboured
/ˈleɪ.bɚd/adjective, verb
laboured is spelled L-A-B-O-U-R-E-D: 8 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,680th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, laboured means “Expressive of strenuous effort” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in laboured?
| Letters | 8: L-A-B-O-U-R-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 42,680th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is laboured?
Laboured appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 42,680th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce laboured?
- US /ˈleɪ.bɚd/
- UK /ˈleɪ.bəd/
Laboured has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-laboured.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of laboured
- more laboured comparative
- most laboured superlative
- labored
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does laboured mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
UKExpressive of strenuous effort.
At the end of the marathon, her laboured breathing told us she was exhausted.
- 2
UKOf writing or speech or similar, stilted or not natural due to too much effort being used in the production.
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of labour
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).