Difference Between Labor and Labour

Labor vs Labour

Labour is a word that is both a noun, as well as verb. When used as a noun, it refers to a class of people who do physical work for daily wages. They are a class of people who are valuable and required in every country for infrastructure development. However, it refers to hard work itself when used as a verb. There is another spelling of the word that is prevalent in US, which is ‘labor’ that creates confusion in the minds of people who are not native speakers of English language. This difference is akin to words colour and color that are used in British English and American English. Let us take a closer look at these words.

We are aware of the international problem of child labour, and forced labour that have been in practice, in some countries, even today. Labour is also a concluding state of pregnancy where a woman is supposed to undergo pains that are necessary to give child birth. Doctors say that a woman was in labor for 5 hours by which they mean that she suffered pains for this period. There is another very important usage of the word labour that refers to hard work done by a person. So when a student says that his hard labor paid off when he cleared a competitive exam.

However, whatever the context and usage, the spelling l-a-b-o-r is used in US while, in most other parts of the world, l-a-b-o-u-r is used.

What is the difference between Labor and Labour? • For all practical purposes, the words labour and labor are synonyms with the only difference being the fact that labor is used in US while it is labour that is used in most other parts of the world • Whether labour or labor, the word has many different meanings and is used in different contexts.