Meaning & use
diligent effort
Last updated
Meanings
phrasecountable
Careful, steady hard work put into doing something well, without giving up.
Grammar: Used as a countable noun phrase: you can say 'a diligent effort' or 'diligent efforts'.
Patterns
- make a diligent effort
- a diligent effort to do something
- require a diligent effort
She made a diligent effort to finish the report before the deadline.
Learning a language takes a diligent effort, not just talent.
His diligent efforts finally paid off when the project was approved.
phrasecountable
An attempt that is done with care and persistence, even if it does not succeed.
Grammar: Often used to praise how someone tried, not whether they won: 'a diligent effort, though unsuccessful'.
Patterns
- a diligent effort at something
- despite a diligent effort
It was a diligent effort, but the team still lost the match.
Despite his diligent effort, the repairs took longer than expected.
The committee praised her diligent effort to gather all the evidence.
Word forms
| plural | diligent efforts |
|---|
Common combinations
- make a diligent effort
- You must make a diligent effort if you want to pass the exam.
- a diligent effort to improve
- The school made a diligent effort to improve attendance.
- require a diligent effort
- This kind of research requires a diligent effort over many months.
- despite a diligent effort
- Despite a diligent effort, they could not save the old building.
- reward diligent effort
- Good managers reward diligent effort, not just results.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hard work
- More general and informal; it focuses on the amount of work rather than the care and persistence.
- assiduous effort
- Stronger and more formal than 'diligent effort'; it stresses constant, tireless attention.
- painstaking effort
- Emphasizes great care over small details, while 'diligent' stresses steady persistence.
Opposites
Word family
- diligent adjective
- Showing careful, steady hard work.
- diligently adverb
- In a careful, persistent way.
- diligence noun
- The quality of working carefully and steadily.
Commonly confused: diligent effort or intelligent effort?
diligent effort vs intelligent effort
'Diligent' is about hard, careful work; 'intelligent' is about smart thinking, so the two describe different qualities.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'diligent effort' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Make a diligent effort to do something' is the standard pattern. Option 1 uses the wrong preposition 'of', option 2 treats the phrase as a verb, and option 3 uses 'for' before a bare verb instead of 'to'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “diligent effort”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.