striving

[strahy-ving]

noun

1. the act or practice of trying hard to do, reach, or achieve something; vigorous effort.

   In the striving for a just and lasting peace, ten agreements have already been reached by national and rebel forces.

2. the act of fighting or struggling against someone or something; competition, opposition, or battle.

   The pursuit of justice itself, or the striving against injustice, is a path to piety in Judaism.

adjective

1. trying hard; making a vigorous effort to do, reach, or achieve something.

   America is the striving immigrant who starts a business or the mom who works two low-wage jobs to give her kids a better life.

2. fighting or struggling against each other.

   Atonement aims at the unification of striving factions by making amends for whatever caused the trouble.

Other Word Forms

• strivingly adverb
• unstriving adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of striving¹

First recorded in 1225–75; striv(e) ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun senses; striv(e) ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses

Example Sentences

Mostly, we’re too caught up in our own lives, through survival or striving, to think about what others think of our messy, vibrant, complicated city.

From Los Angeles Times

Redford will forever be a star fleeing his own magnetism, striving for substance.

From Los Angeles Times

The government has been striving to improve the UK's economic performance, which has been slow for some time.

From BBC

It illustrates the great promise of a messy, fledgling democracy striving to achieve a certain kind of equality and to establish a new form of government responsive to the will of its people.

From Los Angeles Times

When she was a teenager growing up in Sweden, "Vogue represented the world out there, something glamorous and different and the wide horizons that I was striving for."

From BBC