Word.ws English Dictionary

effort

/ˈɛf.ət//ˈɛf.ɚt/

effort noun: the work involved in performing an activity; exertion.

Noun

effort (plural efforts)

  1. The work involved in performing an activity; exertion.
    • make an effort
    • take a lot of effort
    Synonyms:
    trouble
  2. An endeavor.
    • Although he didn't win any medals, Johnson's effort at the Olympics won over many fans.
    • But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87
  3. A force acting on a body in the direction of its motion.
    • the two bodies between which the effort acts1858, Macquorn Rankine, Manual of Applied Mechanics

Verb

effort (third-person singular simple present efforts, present participle efforting, simple past and past participle efforted)

  1. (intransitive, uncommon) To make an effort.
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To strengthen, fortify or stimulate
    • When old, he lived in London where, being High-minded and Poor, he was exposed to the contempt of disingenuous persons. Yet he efforted his Spirits with a Commemoration of the Days of Old.1684, Thomas Fuller, G. S., Anglorum Speculum: Or The Worthies of England, in Church and State

effort meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

effort in Hindi

the amount of work involved in achieving something
प्रयास prayās, कोशिश kośiś, जतन jatan, प्रयत्न prayatna

effort in Tamil

the amount of work involved in achieving something
முயற்சி muyaṟci

effort in Marathi

effort, labour, hard work
मेहनत mehnat

effort in Urdu

the amount of work involved in achieving something
جـﮩد jahad, jahd, کوشش kośiś, جتن jatan, سعی sa'ī
More languagesFewer languages
effort in Bengali
কোশেশ kōśeś, মেহনত mehonot
effort in Telugu
వ్యవసాయము vyavasāyamu, ఘటన ghaṭana, ఘటనము ghaṭanamu, యత్నము yatnamu
effort in Malayalam
പരിശ്രമം pariśramaṁ, പ്രയത്നം prayatnaṁ
effort in Kannada
ಪರಿಶ್ರಮ pariśrama
effort in Punjabi
کوشش kośiś, ਕੋਸ਼ਿਸ਼ kośiś
effort in Gujarati
કોશિશ kośiś, મહેનત mahenat
effort in Sanskrit
प्रयत्न prayatna, शमी śámī, उत्साह utsāha, कार kārá
effort in Assamese
চেষ্টা sesta
effort in Nepali
कोशिश kośiś
effort in Pashto
هڅه háśa
effort in Arabic
جَهْد jahd, جُهْد juhd, مَجْهُود majhūd, سَعْي saʕy
effort in Indonesian
upaya, usaha
effort in Persian
تلاش talâš, سعی sa'y, جهد jahd, کوشش kôšeš
effort in Thai
ความพยายาม kwaam-pá-yaa-yaam
effort in Vietnamese
nỗ lực
effort in Myanmar
ဝါယမ waya.ma., ဝီရိယ wiri.ya.

Examples of effort in a sentence

  • It took a lot of effort to find a decent-sized, fully-furnished apartment within walking distance of the office. He made a conscious effort to not appear affected by the stories in the paper.
  • The slightest effort made the patient cough.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • The 30-year-old South Korean, who joined United in 2005, retired from international duty after last season's Asian Cup in an effort to prolong his club2011 June 22, Press Association, “Manchester United offer Park Ji-sung a new two-year contract”, in The Guardian:

All 40 example sentences with effort

Synonyms of effort

Forms of effort

Noun
pluralefforts
Verb
third-person singular presentefforts
present participleefforting
past participleefforted
pastefforted

Plural of effort: efforts

Origin of effort

From Middle French effort, from Old French esfort, deverbal of esforcier (“to force, exert”), from Vulgar Latin *exfortiō, from Latin ex + fortis (“strong”). Compare typologically Bulgarian усилие (usilie), Czech úsilí, Polish wysiłek, Russian уси́лие (usílije) (< Proto-Slavic *sila).

Words formed from effort

Phrases with effort

Questions about effort

What does effort mean?
Effort means the work involved in performing an activity; exertion.
What is effort in Hindi?
Effort in Hindi is प्रयास (prayās), कोशिश (kośiś), जतन (jatan). See Effort meaning in Hindi.
How do you use effort in a sentence?
It took a lot of effort to find a decent-sized, fully-furnished apartment within walking distance of the office. He made a conscious effort to not appear affected by the stories in the paper.
What part of speech is effort?
Effort can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce effort?
Effort is pronounced /ˈɛf.ət/ (UK).
What is the plural of effort?
The plural of effort is efforts.

Words near effort in the dictionary

  1. efformations
  2. efformative
  3. efformed
  4. efforming
  5. efforms
  6. effort
  7. effort distance
  8. effort distances
  9. effort post
  10. effort posts
  11. efforted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: effort (page history and authors); मेहनत (Marathi) (page history and authors); ఉద్యమము (Telugu) (page history and authors); പരിശ്രമം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಪರಿಶ್ರಮ (Kannada) (page history and authors); کوشش (Punjabi) (page history and authors); કોશિશ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); आत्मन् (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); চেষ্টা (Assamese) (page history and authors); कोशिश (Nepali) (page history and authors); هڅه (Pashto) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-effort.wav, en-us-effort.ogg.

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