laborious

American  

[luh-bawr-ee-uhs] / ləˈbɔr i əs /

adjective

1. requiring much work, exertion, or perseverance.

   a laborious undertaking.

   Synonyms:

   wearisome, tiresome, hard, difficult, burdensome, onerous, arduous, toilsome

2. characterized by or requiring extreme care and much attention to detail.

   laborious research.

3. characterized by or exhibiting excessive effort, dullness, and lack of spontaneity; labored: labor.

   a strained, laborious plot.

4. given to or diligent in work.

   a careful, laborious craftsman.

   Synonyms:

   painstaking, sedulous, assiduous, industrious, hardworking

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laborious British  

/ ləˈbɔːrɪəs /

adjective

1. involving great exertion or long effort

2. given to working hard

3. (of literary style, etc) not fluent

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Other Word Forms

• laboriously adverb
• laboriousness noun
• quasi-laborious adjective
• superlaborious adjective
• superlaboriousness noun
• unlaborious adjective
• unlaboriousness noun

Etymology

Origin of laborious

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English word from Latin word labōriōsus. See labor, -ious

Example Sentences

“While we have tried to simplify the underlying concepts behind the Ontology model, building and implementing an Ontology in a large enterprise is a laborious process,” the analysts say.

From Barron's

The pharma giants will still have other moats, notably the laborious regulatory and testing regime as well as distribution.

From MarketWatch

Yet if the rise to peak Iranian power in 2023 was laborious, the descent from it has been swift.

From The Wall Street Journal

And sometimes, that extra bit of effort just seems too laborious.

From Salon

As a result, the interaction feels, and actually is, more laborious.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• arduous
• backbreaking
• burdensome
• onerous
• strenuous
• tiresome