lab
noun
lab
1 American
[lab]
/ læb /
noun
-
labs
plural
Lab
2
American
[lab]
/ læb /
noun
LAB
3
American
Or
lab
abbreviation
Slang.
lab.
4
American
abbreviation
-
labor.
-
laboratory.
-
laborer.
Lab.
5
American
abbreviation
-
Laborite.
-
Labrador.
Lab.
1
British
abbreviation
-
politics Labour
-
Labrador
lab
2
British
/ læb /
noun
-
short for laboratory
-
short for Labrador retriever
lab.
3
British
abbreviation
-
laboratory
-
labour
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In 2020, the lab embarked on training a chatbot dubbed “Gopher,” purposely keeping the project secret from Google Brain.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026
This is a work college where all students hold jobs on campus like farmer, fiber artist and genetics lab tech.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
Since the public rolls don’t include voters’ unique identifiers, people at the lab also knew linking them to HSI’s data would produce mismatches — what the staffer called an “ungodly” number of false positives.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Agility’s Digit was still in the lab when Johnson became CEO two years ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Just then, Kendrick, the class clown/my lab partner, comes up to our table.
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
Meanwhile, an analysis by the Yale Budget Lab concluded that consumers are paying anywhere from half to the entire cost of the levies through higher prices, depending on the goods.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Hammerheads were sighted off the Southern California coast in 2015, during the last strong El Niño cycle, California State University Long Beach Shark Lab expert Chris Lowe said in an email.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
Dr. Anthony Romilio of The University of Queensland's Dinosaur Lab studied more than 130 footprints spread across the 95.5-meter track.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
Shares of Rocket Lab fell 1.6% to $78.80 after Monday’s bell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
But the tube failed on the day that Crocker came out to the Rad Lab to see it in action.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
It’s worth mentioning that LAB is an umbrella term for a group of bacteria that share certain characteristics, with the most notable being their ability to produce lactic acid.
From Slate ● Feb. 22, 2025
Assuming a bloom of virulent C. acnes was to blame, I hypothesized that recolonizing my skin microbiota with probiotic LAB could effectively treat my acne.
From Slate ● Feb. 22, 2025
This difference in water content between the two layers constituting the LAB can explain the sharp velocity drops as well as the near constant attenuation observed over a wide frequency range in the asthenosphere.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 27, 2023
Barak Ballet was on the heels of its 10-year anniversary before she joined LAB.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2023
Almost the entire staff of what became the MIT AI LAB was involved with TMRC, and probably picked the word up there.
From The Jargon File, Version 2.9.10, 01 Jul 1992 by Eric S. Raymond
"This question did not start in the lab. It started in conversations with beekeepers," Baer said.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 20, 2026
“This is the zoo lab. This would be the botanist’s room on the Beagle,” he said.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2025
“It was Frank Lloyd Wright’s lab. That makes it a space for life and creativity.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2023
The message goes on to say "we've got a courier going to their family home tonight, child will take the test, and courier will take it straight to the lab. Should have result tomorrow am".
From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2023
“That art is worth more than every laptop in the computer lab. It was commissioned specifically for us. Personally, I think our donor wasted his money.”
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
“There’s no limits for the Do Lab. It’s a good escape from everything else and it’s always the perfect vibe at sunset,” said Bocanegra.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2025
BlackSky, the launch customer, retweeted Rocket Lab’s statement, saying: “This is what we have received from Rocket Lab. We will continue to offer updates as we learn more.”
From The Verge ● May 15, 2021
“I’m working with my students and staff to move my work out of the Media Lab. That might involve moving to another part of MIT. It might mean moving elsewhere,” he told the newspaper.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 21, 2019
Through Aug. 12 at the Kennedy Center’s Theater Lab. $49-$59. 202-467-4600 or kennedy-center.org.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 26, 2018
“Big problem, though. The memory serum virus is in the Weapons Lab. The one Nita just tried—and failed—to break into.”
From "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth
The other reason, he said, is that the AI labs haven’t given enough attention to the issue of unequal responses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
While labs like OpenAI and Anthropic have said enterprise customer data isn’t used for training their models, some companies fear that’s not enough.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Despite safety-testing, the AI labs building these systems are still unable to fully control them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Increased demand from AI labs, hyperscalers and enterprises led CoreWeave’s revenue backlog to reach $104 billion at the end of the second quarter, up 246% from a year prior.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Teapot did not end the debate in Washington over the country’s two duplicative bomb labs.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
