playbor

P3L1A1Y4B3O1R1

noun

A hybrid form of play and labour, specifically in the games industry.

Scrabble 14

Meanings

nounplaybor (uncountable)

alternative playbour

  1. uncountableA hybrid form of play and labour, specifically in the games industry.
    1 more example

    The fun, pleasurable aspect of playbor troubles scholars because it seems to suggest that playborers are not exploited; exploitation is supposed to be immiserating, not fun. Furthermore, the characterization of playbor as exploitative might easily be read as something of an insult to the exploitation of real (material) labor, which is in fact immiserating.

    2018 January 16, Greg Goldberg, Antisocial Media: Anxious Labor in the Digital Economy, NYU Press, →ISBN, page 51

Origin

Blend of play + labor, coined by Julian Kücklich Julian Kücklich in 2005.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

playbor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/playbor

MLA

“playbor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/playbor. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “playbor,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/playbor.

Source: playbor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.