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• lab
  lab

  noun

  laboratory.
• Lab
  Lab

  noun

  Labrador retriever.
• LAB
  LAB

  abbreviation

  life’s a bitch (used to acknowledge, often dismissively, a difficult or unfair circumstance).
• lab.
  lab.

  abbreviation

  labor.
• Lab.
  Lab.

  abbreviation

  Laborite.

lab

¹ American  

[lab] / læb /

noun

1. laboratory.

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Lab ² American  

[lab] / læb /

noun

1. Informal. Labrador retriever.

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LAB ³ American  

Or lab

abbreviation

Slang.

1. life’s a bitch (used to acknowledge, often dismissively, a difficult or unfair circumstance).

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lab. ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. labor.

2. laboratory.

3. laborer.

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Lab. ⁵ American  

abbreviation

1. Laborite.

2. Labrador.

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Lab. ¹ British  

abbreviation

1. politics Labour

2. Labrador

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lab ² British  

/ læb /

noun

1. short for laboratory

2. short for Labrador retriever

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lab. ³ British  

abbreviation

1. laboratory

2. labour

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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

“Our data shows that middle managers aren’t going anywhere,” said Sneha Puri, an economist with the Indeed Hiring Lab.

From MarketWatch • May 7, 2026

Irwin has a background in engineering and worked at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab, according to her bio.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026

Zuckerberg spotlighted a new Muse Spark AI model built by Meta's nascent "Superintelligence Lab", saying its technology will be put to work in Meta's offerings such as smartglasses and its advertising system.

From Barron's • Apr. 29, 2026

Further study by National Systematics Lab scientist Abigail Reft identified the cells as spirocysts, which are unique to the Hexacorallia subgroup of cnidarians.

From Science Daily • Apr. 27, 2026

The Rad Lab received the news from Ernest Lawrence, who came “roaring into the lab . . . waving a copy of Comptes Rendus over his head,” as Livingston remembered the moment.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Related Words

• workshop