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

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

Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City on Thursday, 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. — Anthony Izaguirre, Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2026

Verb

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

News from the air punctuated a giddy era of television journalism that was increasingly striving for live, real-time reports. — ABC News, 17 Sep. 2026

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

Set in contemporary multicultural London, Lineage follows Tariq, a man rebuilding his life after prison and striving to carve out a new path for himself and his young son, Amine. — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 9 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

Rohrwacher, who already shined in the director’s 2023 seaside romance Out of Season, brings plenty of soul to a character striving within a crushing system, trying to do the right thing but also stay afloat in a cutthroat corporation. — Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 9 Sep. 2026

OpenAI is striving to regain the initiative in the AI race against a backdrop of growing anxiety from experts, tech leaders, and the public over the risks of frontier AI. — Brendan Ruberry, semafor.com, 3 Sep. 2026

Behind every bottle lies a world shaped by ritual and inheritance, and by those striving to preserve or transform it. — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 2 Sep. 2026