Word.ws English Dictionary

attempts

/əˈtɛmpts/

attempts is the plural of attempt.

attempts is the third-person singular simple present indicative of attempt.

Meaning of attempt

Noun

attempt (plural attempts)

  1. The action of trying at something.
    • We made an attempt to cross the stream, but didn’t manage.
  2. An assault or attack, especially an assassination attempt.
    • No man can charge us of any attempt against the realm.1584, Allen’s Defence Of English Catholics, cited after Edinburgh Review 1883, page 378
  3. (criminal law) A substantial but unsuccessful effort (to commit a crime).
    • Whoever voluntarily abandons the further commission of the offence or prevents its completion incurs no penalty for attempt.2021, “German Criminal Code”, in gesetze-im-internet.de
  4. An act of trying to commit suicide
    • Her attempt was not successful, and resulted in her being hospitalized.

See all 9 meanings of attempt

Questions about attempts

What is attempts the plural of?
Attempts is the plural of attempt.
How do you pronounce attempts?
Attempts is pronounced /əˈtɛmpts/.

Words near attempts in the dictionary

  1. attempteth
  2. attempting
  3. attemptive
  4. attemptless
  5. Attempto Controlled English
  6. attempts
  7. attenable
  8. Attenborough
  9. Attenborough's long-beaked echidna
  10. Attenborough's pitcher plant
  11. Attenborough's pitcher plants

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: attempts (page history and authors); attempt (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-attempts.ogg.

Cite this entry: “attempts.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/attempts. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.