drudgery

Synonym Chooser

How does the noun drudgery contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of drudgery are grind, labor, toil, travail, and work. While all these words mean "activity involving effort or exertion," drudgery suggests dull and irksome labor.

an editorial job with a good deal of drudgery

When might grind be a better fit than drudgery?

The synonyms grind and drudgery are sometimes interchangeable, but grind implies labor exhausting to mind or body.

the grind of the assembly line

When is it sensible to use labor instead of drudgery?

While the synonyms labor and drudgery are close in meaning, labor applies to physical or intellectual work involving great and often strenuous exertion.

farmers demanding fair compensation for their labor

Where would toil be a reasonable alternative to drudgery?

Although the words toil and drudgery have much in common, toil implies prolonged and fatiguing labor.

his lot would be years of back-breaking toil

In what contexts can travail take the place of drudgery?

The words travail and drudgery can be used in similar contexts, but travail is bookish for labor involving pain or suffering.

years of travail were lost when the house burned

When would work be a good substitute for drudgery?

In some situations, the words work and drudgery are roughly equivalent. However, work may imply activity of body, of mind, of a machine, or of a natural force.

too tired to do any work

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of drudgery The bar where everyone knows his name is his refuge from the day-to-day drudgery of his job as an accountant. John Tamny, Forbes.com, 24 May 2025 Venture capitalists speak of a future in which AI agents will sort through the drudgery of daily busywork and free us up to live our best lives. Damon Beres, The Atlantic, 20 May 2025 And back then, among real art people, fundraising was considered drudgery. Rachel Corbett, Vulture, 10 Apr. 2025 With this one invention, millions of secretaries would soon be relieved of the drudgery of constant retyping, and the business office would have a boon in productivity almost as profound as the one the typewriter itself had ushered in long before. Pat Butler, Sportico.com, 16 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for drudgery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for drudgery
Noun
  • The truth, of course, is that while rich entrepreneurs love to pose as one-man bands, every one of them acquired their wealth with the help and labor of thousands of others.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2025
  • Blockbusters have always been expensive to produce, but a pandemic and two labor strikes left studios with an even steeper climb to profitability.
    Brent Lang, Variety, 8 July 2025
Noun
  • His comments came as national governments blocked significant merger efforts, not due to strategy, but due to politics.
    Julian Hayes II, Forbes.com, 10 July 2025
  • Those stockpiling efforts surged this year as steep — and unexpectedly expansive — tariffs came into view and during periods in which they were postponed or lessened.
    Alicia Wallace, CNN Money, 10 July 2025
Noun
  • Poets toil as often-anonymous individuals building some greater nest, colony, or hive that might outlast us or end up squashed and swept away unceremoniously.
    Hannah Brooks-Motl June 2, Literary Hub, 2 June 2025
  • More than a decade of physical and mental toil has caught up with me.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 26 June 2025
Noun
  • The tragedy of slavery is also explored here, including an award-winning exhibit called Slavery and Cotton in the Shoals with work by textile artist Valerie S. Goodwin.
    Lisa Cericola, Southern Living, 5 July 2025
  • Douglass’s decision to speak on July 5, deliberately after Independence Day celebrations, symbolically underscored his argument: America’s celebration of freedom was bitterly ironic and deeply hypocritical in the context of slavery and racial oppression.
    Ed Gaskin, Boston Herald, 4 July 2025
Noun
  • These promotions include odds boosts, no sweat bets and more for MLB games, tennis, the WNBA, etc.
    Tyler Everett, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 July 2025
  • Here's how sweat patterns typically change over time—and when those shifts signal something more serious.
    Lauryn Higgins, Time, 7 July 2025
Noun
  • Jackson hoped that the exhibition would counter the misconception that medieval women were universally downtrodden drudges.
    Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 10 July 2025
  • The corporate laborers of the industrial age were drudges, and might have needed the scaffolding of managerial hierarchies to make widgets in bulk.
    Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker, 19 Feb. 2025
Noun
  • Listeriosis symptoms may include fever, muscle aches, nausea, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea for those with a mild illness.
    Marley Malenfant, Austin American Statesman, 3 July 2025
  • Hours of service limits are meant to reduce driver fatigue.
    Matthew Adams, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3 July 2025
Noun
  • While other editors navigated the daily grind in a visible state of exhaustion, Wintour, with her signature bob, dark sunglasses, and famously enigmatic composure, cultivated an air of mystery and authority that few could emulate.
    Jeetendr Sehdev, Forbes.com, 1 July 2025
  • Olsen talks about how the grind of having to earn a living, the drag of figuring out home care for young kids, has worn female writers down.
    Hilton Als, New Yorker, 30 June 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Drudgery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/drudgery. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.

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