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 AI lab also committed to spend more than $100 billion on Amazon Web Services over the next decade.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 20, 2026

And it was in the lab, and it was on the way.

From Slate • Apr. 20, 2026

A spokesperson for the lab declined to comment, referring The Times to the budget proposal.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 19, 2026

The cells are then sent to a lab, which reprograms them to attack the cancer before sending them back to be returned to the patient.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 19, 2026

“In those days, weeks, months, years, now decades since 1980, Mount St. Helens has become the master teacher—an ideal lab for volcano studies,” said Carolyn Driedger.

From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone

Related Words

• workshop