struggle

1. 1.

   an energetic attempt to achieve something

   “getting through the crowd was a real struggle”

   “he fought a battle for recognition”

   Synonymsbattle

   Broaderattempt

   Narrowerduelscramblejoust
2. 2.

   an open clash between two opposing groups (or individuals)

   “the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph”

   “police tried to control the battle between the pro- and anti-abortion mobs”

   Synonymsconflictbattle

   Broadergroup action

   Narrowerclass strugglerebellionpacificationstrifetug-of-warturf warfightfeud
3. 3.

   strenuous effort

   “the struggle to get through the crowd exhausted her”

   Broadereffort

   Narrowerwrestle

Other forms of struggle

plural

struggles·

past tense

struggled·

present participle

struggling·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about struggle

What does struggle mean?

struggle means "make a strenuous or labored effort". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in struggle?

struggle has 2 syllables: strug-gle. The stress falls on "strug". In IPA it is /ˈstɹʌɡəl/.

What is another word for struggle?

Close synonyms include fight, clamber, scramble, shin, shinny. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is struggle a common word?

struggle is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.