strive
To try very hard to achieve something.
strive in a sentence
- Ana strives to improve her spelling by learning five new words every night.
- Every summer the gardeners strive to grow the biggest marrow at the village show.
Try an 11+ style question
Verbal reasoning papers often ask about a word like this.
Which word is closest in meaning to strive?
- Arest
- Bquit
- Claze
- Dtry
Show the answer
D: try. The other three mean the opposite of strive.
Which word is most nearly opposite in meaning to strive?
- Aaim
- Bquit
- Ctry
- Dstruggle
Show the answer
B: quit. The other three mean nearly the same as strive.
Words that mean something similar
try, struggle, aim
Words that mean the opposite
quit, rest, laze
More words about thinking & learning
- subtle: Small and not obvious, so it is easy to miss.
- superficial: Only on the surface, without going deep.
- thorough: Done carefully and completely, with nothing missed out.
- unanimous: Agreed by every single person, with nobody voting against.
- uncanny: Strange in a way that is hard to explain and slightly spooky.
- unfathomable: Too strange, deep or difficult to understand.
- vague: Not clear or exact.
- valid: Based on good reasoning, or officially acceptable and able to be used.
More words to explore
Sitting the 11+ in Kent, Medway or Buckinghamshire?
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test