noun / verb / adjective

labor

LAY-ber/lˈeɪbɝ/

Effort expended in productive work.

Digging the heavy soil requires hard physical labor from the construction worker.

White older construction worker uses shovel to dig heavy soil, effort clear.

Etymology

Latin labor covered both exertion and the hardship or fatigue accompanying it. That combination remains in English labor, especially when work involves strenuous physical effort.

In context

The Sleepy Scholar129:33

This nursing work required real tenderness, patience, and physical stamina, often performed by servants already exhausted from their ordinary daily labor

Why You Wouldn't Last a Day as a Tudor Servant - and more | Boring History Facts

More examples

The gardeners labor all morning to clear the weeds.
The repair estimate includes parts and labor costs.
Organized labor is pushing for safer working conditions.

Forms

labor · labors · labored · laboring

laborer noun — A worker who mainly does physical work.

laborious adjective — Requiring a great deal of sustained effort.

Similar words

work: Work covers productive activity generally, without emphasizing physical effort.
toil: Toil emphasizes prolonged, exhausting work, often under difficult conditions.
effort: Effort emphasizes energy spent trying, whether or not anything results.