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

Abi is the conventional one, diligently striving in the white-collar world for mundane material comforts. — Judy Berman, Time, 6 Nov. 2026

Wong took a different path and co-founded a political party called Demosisto in 2016, advocating for self-determination and striving for a referendum on the city's political future. — ABC News, 5 Nov. 2026

Julie Klausner’s Hulu comedy ran for three seasons from 2015 to 2017 and starred Klausner and Billy Eichner as two friends striving to make it in showbiz. — Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 4 Nov. 2026

Although the language has all-but-disappeared from daily life, the invaluable work resurfaces at a time when researchers and Creole descendents are striving to preserve—and even revive—the unique dialect. — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 3 Nov. 2026

Here’s the feckless poor, here’s the striving poor, here’s the oblivious cheerful poor, here’s the drug addict, here’s the drunk. — Literary Hub, 2 Nov. 2026

The Greeks offer another kind of striving, one that locates pleasure in the pursuit itself rather than in the prize. — Stacy Keltner, The Conversation, 30 Oct. 2026

Now that's a TV striving to make everything as lifelike as possible! — George Yang, PC Magazine, 29 Oct. 2026

Filmed largely on the doctors’ phones, the film offers an intimate account of the people striving to preserve life amid a devastating humanitarian crisis. — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 19 Oct. 2026