1
as in diligent
involved in often constant activity
the volunteers have been commendably laborious in their cleanup of the beach
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2
as in difficult
requiring considerable physical or mental effort
the laborious task of cleaning up the oil spill
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3
as in challenging
requiring much time, effort, or careful attention
that report is the product of months of laborious research
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of laborious
Drying clothing could take days and ironing, well, ironing is still laborious.
—
Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 9 Jan. 2026
Governing is a long and laborious process, requiring study, deliberation and the weighing of competing forces.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Mercury News, 7 Jan. 2026
The issue at hand is that people often construe exercise as being laborious, tedious, and just not especially appealing.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 5 Jan. 2026
Governing is a long and laborious process, requiring study, deliberation and the weighing of competing forces.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for laborious
Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 9 Jan. 2026
Governing is a long and laborious process, requiring study, deliberation and the weighing of competing forces.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Mercury News, 7 Jan. 2026
The issue at hand is that people often construe exercise as being laborious, tedious, and just not especially appealing.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 5 Jan. 2026
Governing is a long and laborious process, requiring study, deliberation and the weighing of competing forces.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for laborious
Recent Examples of Synonyms for laborious
Adjective
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Learning how to study a football scouting report or work through a practice script can make a basketball player all the more diligent.—
Haley Sawyer,
Oc Register,
24 Jan. 2026
-
Darnold has to be diligent in seeing the Rams’ coverage rotations and making good decisions.—
Ted Nguyen,
New York Times,
22 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Business leaders, of course, have their own interests and shareholders to serve, but Democrats can still protect the public interest while giving CEOs a seat at the table to reach pragmatic answers to difficult questions like these.—
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld,
Time,
13 Jan. 2026
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Activist groups say hundreds of people have been killed, though the true toll remains difficult to verify due to the internet blackout and tight state controls on information.—
Landon Mion,
FOXNews.com,
13 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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If some species can continue reproducing even under challenging conditions, that resilience could buy ecosystems valuable time.—
Melissa Cristina Márquez,
Forbes.com,
29 Jan. 2026
-
Much of Shrinking revolves around people going through challenging times and healing through finding love, such as Paul (Harrison Ford) beginning a relationship with his doctor.—
Skyler Trepel,
PEOPLE,
28 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Both teams were busy this week.—
Dan Albano,
Oc Register,
25 Jan. 2026
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Valanciunas amassed 16 points and nine boards in 22 minutes, a busy night in spite of a minutes restriction that left David Adelman marveling at the box score afterward.—
Bennett Durando,
Denver Post,
24 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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The strategy would give OpenAI a direct hardware presence to complement its software and nearly a billion weekly users of ChatGPT, but faces tough competition from entrenched products without deep operating-system integration.—
Charlie Fink,
Forbes.com,
23 Jan. 2026
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The marketing and positioning of actresses in their roles is tougher than it’s been in recent years because of the insult machinery of man-boy social media and its echoes across society more widely.—
Richard Brody,
New Yorker,
22 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Brooks sat for roughly 10 hours of interviews over five sessions — a demanding schedule for a 99-year-old subject, but one Apatow approached with care.—
Stephen Silver,
Sun Sentinel,
27 Jan. 2026
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The incident, blown out of proportion in his opinion, was, on the contrary, an example of how demanding the crowd can be at Juventus.—
James Horncastle,
New York Times,
26 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Graham Lynch urged Americans to remain engaged beyond attending the march.—
Jasmine Baehr,
FOXNews.com,
24 Jan. 2026
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Your community grows as its members become more engaged and invested.—
William Arruda,
Forbes.com,
23 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Before taking any further action, the city must demand clear, rigorous answers to several critical concerns.—
Sara Lind,
New York Daily News,
23 Jan. 2026
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Scientists, medical experts, policy makers and administrators, along with citizens who care about public health and nuclear energy, can bolster public confidence in nuclear energy by weighing in on this decision with the latest, most rigorous information possible.—
Katy Huff,
Scientific American,
23 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Laborious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/laborious. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.
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