laboriously

American  

[luh-bawr-ee-uhs-lee] / ləˈbɔr i əs li /

adverb

1. in a way that involves or requires much effort, exertion, care, or attention to detail.

   All equipment, food, and fuel have to be laboriously carried to the summit.

   Books were still rare, since they needed to be laboriously handwritten by scribes.

---

Other Word Forms

• quasi-laboriously
  adverb
• superlaboriously
  adverb
• unlaboriously
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of laboriously

laborious ( def. ) + -ly

Explanation

When it takes a huge, slow effort to do something, you do it laboriously. For some students, math is a breeze — others have to study laboriously for every quiz. Whether you're exerting yourself physically or mentally, if it takes a lot of effort and time, you're working laboriously. Landscapers laboriously hefting heavy stones will groan and sweat, while chess players laboriously planning several moves ahead might just furrow their brows with the effort. This adverb comes from labor and its Latin root meaning "toil, exertion, or hardship."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

laboriously

I suppose I could disable all these notices, laboriously one by one.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

The garden's collection has been laboriously reassembled after it had perished during World War II -- through decades of purchases, exchanges and numerous scientific missions that took Ivannikov's senior colleagues across several continents.

From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026

She worked at the Harvard College Observatory as a “human computer,” laboriously measuring the positions and brightness of thousands of stars on photographic plates.

From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2025

We are more representative of what chasing that dream actually looks like, because we’re laboriously doing it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2025

Around her, gulls screamed and pelicans flapped laboriously.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

Related Words

• assiduously
• eagerly
• painstakingly