Synonyms of striving

striving 1 of 2

noun

as in struggle

Related Words

• struggle
• attempt
• undertaking
• endeavor
• try
• bid
• offer
• throes
• pass
• go
• essay
• assay
• trial
• stab
• crack
• shot
• bash
• fling
• whack
• whirl
• trial and error

striving

2 of 2

verb

present participle of strive

1

as in struggling

to devote serious and sustained effort

not only must we strive for peace in time of war, we must strive mightily to maintain that peace

Synonyms & Similar Words

• struggling
• laboring
• working
• endeavoring
• trying
• toiling
• tugging
• hustling
• sweating
• plowing
• straining
• grubbing
• slaving
• digging (away)
• plodding
• humping
• slogging
• banging away
• drudging
• pegging (away)
• plugging
• travailing
• moiling
• fagging
• sweating blood
• applying (oneself)
• attacking
• exerting
• beavering (away)
• buckling (down)
• driving
• exercising
• hammering (away)
• scratching
• essaying
• pitching in
• digging in
• scrabbling
• overworking
• wading
• grinding (out)
• trudging
• eking out
• knuckling down
• overexerting
• putting out

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• breaking
• slackening
• easing (up)
• resting
• idling
• shirking
• loafing
• letting up
• lounging
• hanging (around or out)
• chilling
• relaxing
• bumming
• playing
• dallying
• lazing
• basking
• unwinding
• hacking (around)
• slacking (off)
• hanging
• goofing (off)
• reposing
• lolling
• dabbling
• dillydallying
• trifling
• goldbricking
• footling
• doodling
• vegging out
• fooling around
• messing around
• hanging about
• goofing (around)
• puttering (around)
• monkeying (around)
• pottering (around)
• fribbling

2

as in trying

to make an effort to do

let us strive to make the most of this opportunity

Synonyms & Similar Words

• trying
• attempting
• seeking
• endeavoring
• struggling
• hoping
• shooting at
• assaying
• essaying
• working
• aiming
• toiling
• fighting
• having a go at
• aspiring
• trying one's hand (at)
• troubling
• undertaking
• straining
• assuming
• taking up

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• dropping
• giving up
• quitting

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of striving

Noun

That contradiction is harder to overlook in Lee’s latest tale of immigrant striving, American Hagwon. — Sanjena Sathian, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2026

To conclude 39 days of human striving, the gate didn’t determine who the game belonged to. — Jerry Brewer, New York Times, 20 July 2026

And the striving didn’t stay on the ballfield or in the ring. — Anthony Scaramucci, Fortune, 28 June 2026

Such foolhardy male striving, the movie suggests, is all too often destructive. — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 18 May 2026

These towers trace a geography of 21st-century striving, stretching from East Asia to the Gulf and North America. — Karina Acharya, Condé Nast Traveler, 24 Feb. 2026

Their presence is an expression of human striving, not political provocation. — Rabbi Bruce D. Forman, Sun Sentinel, 10 Feb. 2026

And taken wholesale, both arguments could be enlisted to support more unhealthy striving, less peace on earth. — Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 4 Feb. 2026

Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City yesterday, taking over one of the most unrelenting jobs in American politics with a promise to transform government on behalf of the city’s striving, struggling working class. — Chicago Tribune, 2 Jan. 2026

Verb

And day by day, play by play, Dunnigan is striving to improve. — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 3 Oct. 2026

These steps are consistent with any institution of excellence that is constantly striving for improvement. — ABC News, 2 Oct. 2026

The next year, Varjao and her husband Miguel Salinas opened their own Sea Love franchise of Sea Love in Oak Park and are striving to provide that same calming feeling for the community that Varjao felt during that family outing. — Cam'ron Hardy, Chicago Tribune, 25 Sep. 2026

MILKist led the initial research and technical formulation, striving to make a sufficiently strong sheet from 100 percent barley straw without adding other fibers or binders. — Alexandra Harrell, Footwear News, 23 Sep. 2026

Such hagiographic descriptors are applied to nearly all of Hagwon’s striving middle-class characters as well as most of its wealthy ones. — Sanjena Sathian, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2026

And Newsom has often been an ally to the state’s striving technology industry chiefs. — Andrew Graham, Sacbee.com, 19 Sep. 2026

To Dillard, striving to hear the natural world was holy work too. — Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic, 16 Sep. 2026

The idea of not striving for the best possible outcome ran counter to a lifetime of conditioning. — Chris Borland, New York Times, 9 Sep. 2026