Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To exert much effort or energy; endeavor.
- v. To struggle or fight forcefully; contend: strive against injustice.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make strenuous effort; endeavor earnestly; labor hard; do one's endeavor; try earnestly and persistently: followed by an infinitive: as, he strove hard to win the prize; to strive to excel; to strive to pay one's way.
- To contend; straggle; battle; fight: followed by with, against, or for: as, to strive against fate; to strive for the truth.
- To vie; contend for preëminence: with with.
- To quarrel or contend with one another; be at variance one with another, or come to be so; be in contention, dispute, or altercation.
- To oppose by contrariety of qualities: with with.
- Synonyms Undertake, Endeavor, etc.(see attempt); seek, aim, toil.
- To compete, contest.
- To dispute, wrangle.
- n. A striving; an effort; a strife.
Wiktionary
- v. To try to achieve a result; to make strenuous effort; to try earnestly and persistently.
- v. To struggle in opposition; to be in contention or dispute; to contend; to contest.
- n. obsolete An effort; a striving.
- n. obsolete strife; contention
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make efforts; to use exertions; to endeavor with earnestness; to labor hard.
- v. To struggle in opposition; to be in contention or dispute; to contend; to contest; -- followed by
against orwith before the person or thing opposed. - v. To vie; to compete; to be a rival.
- n. rare An effort; a striving.
- n. obsolete Strife; contention.
WordNet 3.0
- v. attempt by employing effort
- v. to exert much effort or energy
Etymologies
- Middle English striven "to strive" from Old French estriver "to compete, quarrel" from Old French estrif "quarrel, dispute", alteration (influenced by Germanic forms related to Frankish *strīban "to strive", compare Middle Dutch streven "to strive", German streben "to strive") of Old French estrit, from Frankish *strīd "quarrel, dispute" from Proto-Germanic *strīdō (“combat, strife”). Akin to Old High German strīt "quarrel" (German Streit), Old High German strītan "to fight", Old Norse strīð "strife, contention". More at stride. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English striven, from Old French estriver, from estrit, estrif, quarrel; see strife. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Full unity, for which the Lord prayed and for which all His disciples must tirelessly strive, is linked to the very life and mission of the Church in the world", he said.”
“We must again strive to offer praise to God with the most beautiful churches and art and clothing and liturgical music we can manage.”
“What would be the point in strive to be a multi-millionaire if the little digital markers had no value?”
Think Progress » Woodward Reveals Important Clues About White House Smear Campaign
“Nor does Froomkin strive for the kind of balance one would hope for in a political reporter.”
“They have taught us that the peace for which we strive is something that has to be won within and through the individual human being.”
“The setting of equality as the ideal objective, though a distant one, towards which our legislation should be directed and towards which we should strive, is in the best interest not only of the weak, the aged and the underprivileged, but it is in the interest of a strong and dynamic Canadian nation.”
“While most action-oriented anime titles strive to become visual spectacles, Karas stands as one of the rare few which genuinely achieves such status.”
“Seeking to explain why teens cannot easily accept other points of view, but they develop the capacity to when they grow a bit older, has been a long-term strive for scientists, who now think they may have identified the problem.”
“This spiritual goal, toward which all of the baptized strive, is reached by following the path of the evangelical”
“I’m disgusted by the way anti-Americans like Bachmann & Palin strive to divide Americans.”
Think Progress » Bachmann: ‘MoveOn.org people’ are not ‘real people.’
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘strive’.
-
hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 318 more...
-
fight
words for fighting
( open list, randomness )bout, fight, match, smackdown, blue, stoush, battle, clash, fuss, fray, ruckus, tussle and 115 more...
-
RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
Laban, circumcise, beget, Esau, Rebekah, speckle, Sodom, Pharaoh, Canaanite, Canaan, Jacob, Lot and 1286 more...
-
Words from books I've read
These are some words I didn't know when I read and now I want to know!
Scribble, Newfangled, swift, swathe, budget, obstreperous, trickle, rank, covetous, scratch, hunch, dodge and 179 more...
-
Neww
specious, disdainfully, vehemently, in lieu of, dismissive, perpetual, preposterous, impasse, fathom, conversely, repugnant, clogged and 142 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
-
Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
-
kingrat47's Words
procrustean, devolution, cacophony, hippopotamus, crunch, beware, chortled, sibilant, subtle, undermine, acromegaly, acropolis and 645 more...
-
Words of the Day
glabella, chirotony, nook-shotten, crapehanger, filemot, swirlie, egosurf, lexiphanicism, Ruritanian, stichometry, chrononaut, faldstool and 2050 more...
-
bobodod's Words
cultie, screwery, gauge, wanker, truthiness, harangue, mediocre, ragamuffin, elysian, spoonerism, loquacious, apostle and 240 more...
-
Learning
Want to speak fluent english. so learning words.
amend, confess, construe, whelm, perceive, percept, condemn, remedy, strive, encompass, convey, endeavor and 13 more...
-
iliad by edward earl of derby
prosody, dactylics, canning, hecatombs, kindle, broils, double goblet, strive, succour, weal, bawling, scurril and 49 more...
-
ordinary.madness's Words
disgruntled, unprecedented, strive, debauchery, indulgence, draconian, imbricate, amalgamation, skittish, lanyard, merdiven, orangesmoke and 28 more...
-
praveen kumar
hi, tradition, description, tolerate, embarrassment, organisational, although, contemporary, contender, intimidation, poverty, groom and 53 more...
-
Not-so-basic words.
postmeridian, post meridiem, ante meridiem, cataclysm, laconic, taciturn, reticent, concupiscence, strive, indigo, apricot, jaboticaba and 24 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for strive.

Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.