drudgery

Synonym Chooser

How does the noun drudgery contrast with its synonyms?

Some common synonyms of drudgery are grind, labor, toil, travail, and work. While all these words mean "activity involving effort or exertion," drudgery suggests dull and irksome labor.

an editorial job with a good deal of drudgery

When might grind be a better fit than drudgery?

The synonyms grind and drudgery are sometimes interchangeable, but grind implies labor exhausting to mind or body.

the grind of the assembly line

When is it sensible to use labor instead of drudgery?

While the synonyms labor and drudgery are close in meaning, labor applies to physical or intellectual work involving great and often strenuous exertion.

farmers demanding fair compensation for their labor

Where would toil be a reasonable alternative to drudgery?

Although the words toil and drudgery have much in common, toil implies prolonged and fatiguing labor.

his lot would be years of back-breaking toil

In what contexts can travail take the place of drudgery?

The words travail and drudgery can be used in similar contexts, but travail is bookish for labor involving pain or suffering.

years of travail were lost when the house burned

When would work be a good substitute for drudgery?

In some situations, the words work and drudgery are roughly equivalent. However, work may imply activity of body, of mind, of a machine, or of a natural force.

too tired to do any work

Examples of drudgery in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But Gracey’s war against biopic convention isn’t the massacre its first hour might lead you to hope for, as the film’s pop psychology isn’t at all nuanced enough to sustain the full drudgery of Williams’ downward spiral. David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 2 Sep. 2024 The usual Ubisoft drudgery, where icons on maps become weights on the brain, was gone. Tauriq Moosa, The Verge, 31 Aug. 2024 Many of these strategies largely revolve around building joy rather than drudgery. Jackie Valley, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Sep. 2024 Hold on to that sense of hope when day-to-day drudgery threatens to grind you down. Jennifer Culp, Them, 9 Aug. 2024 See all Example Sentences for drudgery 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'drudgery.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Thesaurus Entries Near drudgery

Cite this Entry

“Drudgery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/drudgery. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on drudgery

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