mão de obra
Portuguese, noun
mão de obra is a Portuguese feminine noun meaning “labour, workforce, manpower (workers employed by an organisation, especially for manual labour)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). On this page, mão-de-obra is a different word: “pre-reform spelling (used until 1990) of mão de obra; still used…”.
What does mão de obra mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininelabour, workforce, manpower (workers employed by an organisation, especially for manual labour)
noun
- 1
femininepre-reform spelling (used until 1990) of mão de obra; still used where the agreement hasn’t come into effect and may occur as a sporadic misspelling
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
noun: 1. vide mão de obra
phrase: 1. trabalho manual 2. custo do serviço ou trabalho realizado 3. conjunto de trabalhadores das áreas operacionais 4. custo do trabalho operacional numa indústria
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of mão de obra
- mãos-de-obra plural
- mão-de-obra alternative
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to mão de obra
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.