1
as in pains
a state of great suffering of body or mind
no greater travail than that of parents who have suffered the death of a child
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in efforts
very hard or unpleasant work
these villagers now have decent housing, so our travail has not been in vain
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in childbirths
the act or process of giving birth to children
a midwife assisted her throughout her long travail
Synonyms & Similar Words
as in struggles
to devote serious and sustained effort
Labor Day is the day on which we recognize those men and women who daily travail with little appreciation or compensation
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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 travails
Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 6 Nov. 2025
This must rank as one of the earliest examples of the travails of seeking to do business with China.
—Kerry Brown, Time, 31 Oct. 2025
Unlike his own travails under Cruyff, Lineker says that Flick’s 4-3-3 shape suits Barca’s current England attacker Rashford, who has five goals and four assists in 12 appearances since joining on a season-long loan from Manchester United.
—Dermot Corrigan, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025
The project is a labor of love for Meyer, who grappled with his own travails acclimating back to civilian life after two deployments to Iraq.
—La Risa R. Lynch, jsonline.com, 15 Oct. 2025
But this climactic sequence, too, is redolent of too many other films to name, as is a final stretch where the apparent resolution to the sisters’ travails turns out to be something else.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 13 Oct. 2025
Whereas the title Amerika emphasizes the setting, The Missing Person points to the novel’s focus on the travails of a guileless hero struggling to find his footing in a frenetic new world.
—Literary Hub, 6 Oct. 2025
The receivership situation was first reported by Crain's Detroit, which has also chronicled Holtzman's financial travails.
—Jc Reindl, Freep.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Entirely outside the symbolic order, nature goes about its business, taking no notice of our seemingly momentous upheavals, our dumb travails.
—Michael Robbins, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
Noun
Season 2 of The Office Movers launches tomorrow (November 7), following the latest travails of two brothers navigating Toronto’s commercial office moving industry.
—Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 6 Nov. 2025
This must rank as one of the earliest examples of the travails of seeking to do business with China.
—Kerry Brown, Time, 31 Oct. 2025
Unlike his own travails under Cruyff, Lineker says that Flick’s 4-3-3 shape suits Barca’s current England attacker Rashford, who has five goals and four assists in 12 appearances since joining on a season-long loan from Manchester United.
—Dermot Corrigan, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025
The project is a labor of love for Meyer, who grappled with his own travails acclimating back to civilian life after two deployments to Iraq.
—La Risa R. Lynch, jsonline.com, 15 Oct. 2025
But this climactic sequence, too, is redolent of too many other films to name, as is a final stretch where the apparent resolution to the sisters’ travails turns out to be something else.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 13 Oct. 2025
Whereas the title Amerika emphasizes the setting, The Missing Person points to the novel’s focus on the travails of a guileless hero struggling to find his footing in a frenetic new world.
—Literary Hub, 6 Oct. 2025
The receivership situation was first reported by Crain's Detroit, which has also chronicled Holtzman's financial travails.
—Jc Reindl, Freep.com, 22 Aug. 2025
Entirely outside the symbolic order, nature goes about its business, taking no notice of our seemingly momentous upheavals, our dumb travails.
—Michael Robbins, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for travails
Noun
-
But while pains de garde can be eaten all week long, baguettes go stale quickly, leading to significant waste in French households.—
Vivian Song,
CNN Money,
8 Nov. 2025
-
Eager to assimilate, Japanese farmers took pains to learn English.—
Equal Justice Initiative,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
There is currently no information about the containment efforts for the fire and its cause remains unknown.—
CA WILDFIRE BOT,
Sacbee.com,
9 Nov. 2025
-
And then on Thursday, after most of the show had been written, a man collapsed in the Oval Office, generating an instantly meme-able photograph of the president staring into the camera, looking oblivious to efforts to revive the prone victim at stage left.—
Erik Adams,
The Atlantic,
9 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
In some Michigan counties, Medicaid covers more than half of all childbirths.—
Kristen Jordan Shamus,
Freep.com,
8 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Getting perfectly pinpoint stars can be a struggle from the lack of low-light autofocus and struggles with faint objects in the optical viewfinder.—
Harry Bennett,
Space.com,
10 Nov. 2025
-
That quest comes to a screeching halt due to the 2008 recession, as Jackie scrambles to adjust to a new lifestyle while husband David struggles to keep his timeshare empire from crumbling.—
Dalton Ross,
Entertainment Weekly,
10 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
So many seem eager to be rid of the labors of thought and expression—the very labors that define them as free and autonomous human beings—by ceding them to generative artificial intelligence.—
Elizabeth D. Samet,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Oct. 2025
-
For all the revelry, there was a tough, discursive seriousness in the approach that Lang and O’Hara took to their labors in the late forties and early fifties.—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
13 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
The development comes as Netflix strives to become more competitive with its peers in the battle to win ad dollars from Madison Avenue.—
Brian Steinberg,
Variety,
5 Nov. 2025
-
Everyone strives for that state and pours their love into it.—
Billboard Japan,
Billboard,
28 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
Noun
-
Gift with Taste 672 elevates gifting with flexible deliveries of Napa’s most exceptional reds, handpicked by Robb Report editors.—
Kathryn O’Shea-Evans,
Robb Report,
8 Nov. 2025
-
Each box of pods follows the same format as their whole bean deliveries, single origin from a range of different coffee-producing countries and ready to drop right into a Keurig machine.—
Noah Kaufman,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
7 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Travails.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/travails. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share