lab

¹ American  

[lab] / læb /

noun

1. laboratory.

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Lab ² American  

[lab] / læb /

noun

1. Informal. Labrador retriever.

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LAB ³ American  

Or lab

abbreviation

Slang.

1. life’s a bitch (used to acknowledge, often dismissively, a difficult or unfair circumstance).

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lab. ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. labor.

2. laboratory.

3. laborer.

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Lab. ⁵ American  

abbreviation

1. Laborite.

2. Labrador.

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Lab. ¹ British  

abbreviation

1. politics Labour

2. Labrador

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lab ² British  

/ læb /

noun

1. short for laboratory

2. short for Labrador retriever

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lab. ³ British  

abbreviation

1. laboratory

2. labour

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Etymology

Origin of lab¹

By shortening

Origin of Lab²

By shortening

Origin of LAB³

From its use in digital communications

Explanation

A lab is a room or building where science experiments, tests, and research are done. Most high schools have science labs for biology and chemistry classes. Lab is shorthand for laboratory, with its Medieval Latin root laboratorium, "a place for labor or work," from the Latin laborare, "to work." Many scientists and researchers go to work each day in a lab (often wearing a "lab coat," a white smock that protects their clothes). Some labs are equipped for studying the way plants grow and reproduce, while in others scientists study the brainwaves of human subjects or the traits of a virus. If you are a scientist, chances are you hang out in a lab.

Example Sentences

The treatment doesn’t require the use of a lab dish outside the patient’s body, reducing the amount of work and time needed to treat the patient.

From Barron's • Apr. 22, 2026

With the data gathered from the new employee tracker, Meta is hoping to train new AI models that will come out of the lab.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

Choe's lab focuses on how urban insect pests communicate chemically, with the goal of turning that knowledge into smarter control strategies for pests such as western drywood termites.

From Science Daily • Apr. 20, 2026

The push to expand Anthropic’s capacity comes as the AI lab touts its “unprecedented consumer growth.”

From MarketWatch • Apr. 20, 2026

But I don’t want to see her after our fight yesterday, to have to avoid her and go sit somewhere by myself, so instead I go to the computer lab, like I used to.

From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy

Related Words

• workshop