laborvslabosConfusable pair

Which to use

“labor” and “labos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,683
“labor” frequency rank
#26,778
“labos” frequency rank
57461
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature labor labos
Definition Peine, souffrance. Pluriel de labo.

Letter map: labor vs labos

Shared letters muted; letters that set labor and labos apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
labor
5 ch
labos

Pair insight - labor / labos

labor and labos are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - r in “labor” becomes s in “labos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

labor is recorded at frequency rank #30,683, classified as anoun. labos is at rank #26,778, tagged as anoun, pronounced \la.bo\.

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 57461, this pair ranks #114,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of labor vs labos

Shared letters: ablo. Private to "labor": r. Private to "labos": s.

"labor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "labos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laboralbor · labbor · laborr · labro · laobr · lbaor · llabor
  • labosalbos · labbos · laboss · labso · laobs · lbaos · llabos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "labor" for "labos" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - r in “labor” becomes s in “labos”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "labor" or "labos"?
"labos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,778 in our French list, against #30,683 for "labor". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "labor" vs "labos" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "labor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "labos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #114,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "labor" and "labos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "labor vs lobo". 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 #114,910 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list