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 future is not about clinging to bureaucratic models but about creating conditions where people can flourish once the drudgery is gone. John Winsor, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025 Treating cooking like drudgery—another chore to perform—will likely not inspire them to adopt this crucial life skill, one that seems to be going by the wayside in the era of GrubHub and DoorDash. Elisabeth Sherman, Parents, 3 Sep. 2025 Simmons spent the time between minicamp and training camp toiling in Kansas City, working to hit the ground running when the drudgery of camp in St. Joseph began. Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 2 Sep. 2025 This erudite and thought-provoking book tackles a dominant issue of the day, and indeed of the last two centuries: whether the forward march of technology promises to free humankind from want and drudgery or instead threatens to enslave and even extinguish human civilization. Foreign Affairs, 19 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for drudgery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for drudgery
Noun
  • However, energy analysts point to the high costs of setting up in a new remote environment in harsh weather without local infrastructure, labor, or equipment.
    Jordan Blum, Fortune, 22 Oct. 2025
  • In the years that followed, the city lost its labor negotiator and, later, the assistant city attorney who worked on the negotiations.
    David Clarey, jsonline.com, 21 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Smaller efforts popped up in Greenland over the years, but nothing came to fruition.
    Jordan Blum, Fortune, 22 Oct. 2025
  • Supporting the Army’s next phase The M-SHORAD Increment 4 effort is a major part of the Army’s broader modernization strategy.
    Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 21 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • How Tielemans overcame early toils is often used as a source of encouragement by new additions who seem peripheral at first.
    Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025
  • But to borrow Manidis’s framework, the drive to create such a tool conflates useless toil with meaningful labor.
    Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 20 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Once freed from slavery, Washington toiled in coal mines, worked as a janitor in exchange for formal education and became a great American orator and leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
    Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, 22 Oct. 2025
  • How the stakeholders juggled those diametrically opposed ideas—liberty and self-governance but also slavery and their horrific treatment of the Native American population—is the part of the human experience that Burns is most interested in exploring.
    Carlo Versano, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • These high-rise cuties look office-appropriate but feel more like leggings, thanks to four-way stretch and thermoregulating fabric that dries quickly and helps to wick away sweat throughout the day.
    Sophie Dodd, Travel + Leisure, 26 Oct. 2025
  • The Nulu fabric is buttery-soft, sweat-wicking, and warm without overheating.
    Nicol Natale, PEOPLE, 25 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Offload drudge work and risky tasks so humans can focus on safer, more creative work.
    Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Jackson hoped that the exhibition would counter the misconception that medieval women were universally downtrodden drudges.
    Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 10 July 2025
Noun
  • Researchers highlighted the current challenges for OCTOID, including slow thermal response and potential fatigue of CLCEs, and the weight of nichrome wires limiting flexibility.
    Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 26 Oct. 2025
  • Hoka Women’s Transport Shoes This cushy shoe is designed with a rocker bottom that pushes you into your next step, putting off foot fatigue for longer.
    Jasmine Gomez, Travel + Leisure, 25 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Years before gaining notoriety as a movie star through his role in one of the most successful film franchises in history, Ludacris was simply another artist on the grind trying to figure it out.
    Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 22 Oct. 2025
  • In what was a defensive grind at times, the star of the show on offense was Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba who continued his excellent third season in the NFL.
    Ben Morse, CNN Money, 21 Oct. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Drudgery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/drudgery. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.

More from Merriam-Webster on drudgery

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!