Synonyms for laborious
- adjective
Most common
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Arduous
arduous, tedious, hard, burdensome, difficult, back-breaking, wearisome, heavy, onerous, grueling, herculean, troublesome, fatiguing, gruelling, punishing, tiresome, exhausting, effortful, operose dated
2. Painstaking — requiring much physical effort; toilsome
painstaking, painful, industrious, assiduous, diligent, hard-working, indefatigable, toilsome, sedulous, worky informal, worksome, irksome, persevering, untiring
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Requiring much physical effort; toilsome.
- adj. 2
Mentally difficult; painstaking.
Related words
- Word family
- laboriously laboriousness labor
Choose the right word
That which is laborious or toilsome simply requires the steady application of labor or toil till accomplished; toilsome is the stronger word.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- difficult Explain to him the difficult situation you are in.
- tedious The journey, as I recall it, was long and tedious.
- arduous She went through a long and arduous vocational course.
- burdensome I appreciated her kindness, while I feel it burdensome.
- painful She is still in the painful process of growing up.
- painstaking Each item was described in painstaking detail.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| laborious | falling | |
| difficult | steady | |
| tedious | steady | |
| arduous | steady | |
| burdensome | steady | |
| painful | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- hard1
- 5 letters
- heavy2, worky
- 7 letters
- painful2, tedious3, arduous3, onerous3, irksome2, slavish2, operose
- 8 letters
- diligent3, tiresome3, grueling3, untiring, toilsome, sedulous, worksome
- 9 letters
- difficult3, punishing3, herculean4, gruelling, fatiguing3, assiduous3, wearisome3, effortful
- 10 letters
- exhausting3, burdensome3
- 11 letters
- troublesome3, painstaking3, industrious4, persevering4, fatiguesome
- 13 letters
- indefatigable6
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (heavy2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- laborieux
- Español
- laborioso
- Deutsch
- arbeitsam
- Català
- treballador