labor-intensive

adjective

Requiring a great deal of work, especially physical and manual effort versus capital.

“Picking beans is a very labor-intensive activity, there's no machine made that can do it.”

Similar
work-intensivelabour-intensiveeffortful
Opposite
capital-intensive
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Meanings

adjectivelabor-intensive (comparative more labor-intensive, superlative most labor-intensive)

comparative more labor-intensive · superlative most labor-intensive · alternative labour-intensive

  1. USRequiring a great deal of work, especially physical and manual effort versus capital.

    Picking beans is a very labor-intensive activity, there's no machine made that can do it.

    Synonyms: work-intensive

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveRequiring a great deal of work, especially physical and manual effort versus capital.

Similar
work-intensive
Opposite
capital-intensive

More synonyms by meaning

adjectiverequiring a large expenditure of labor but not much capital

Similar
labour-intensiveeffortful
Also see
labour-intensivework-intensiveworky

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

From labor + intensive. Compare work-intensive.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 勞動密集型 /劳动密集型
  • 勞動密集型 /劳动密集型 (láodòng mìjíxíng)requiring a great deal of work
Danish arbejdsintensiv, arbejdskraftintensiv
  • arbejdsintensivrequiring a great deal of work
  • arbejdskraftintensivrequiring a great deal of work
Dutch arbeidsintensief
  • arbeidsintensiefrequiring a great deal of work
Finnish työintensiivinen
  • työintensiivinenrequiring a great deal of work
German arbeitsintensiv
  • arbeitsintensivrequiring a great deal of work
Greek εντάσεως εργασίας, έντασης εργασίας
  • εντάσεως εργασίας (entáseos ergasías)requiring a great deal of work
  • έντασης εργασίας (éntasis ergasías)requiring a great deal of work
Hungarian munkaigényes
  • munkaigényesrequiring a great deal of work
Indonesian padat karya
  • padat karyarequiring a great deal of work
Malay intensif buruh
  • intensif buruhrequiring a great deal of work
Polish pracochłonny
  • pracochłonnyrequiring a great deal of work
Russian трудоёмкий
  • трудоёмкий (trudojómkij)requiring a great deal of work
Swedish arbetsintensiv
  • arbetsintensivrequiring a great deal of work
Ukrainian трудомістки́й
  • трудомістки́й (trudomistkýj)requiring a great deal of work
Cite this entry
APA

labor-intensive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/labor-intensive

MLA

“labor-intensive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/labor-intensive. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “labor-intensive,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/labor-intensive.

Source: labor-intensive on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.