Meaning & use
Sisyphean effort
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Meaning
noununcountableliteraryfigurative
Hard, repetitive work that never reaches an end or lasting result, since the task keeps returning.
Grammar: Often takes an article when specific: a Sisyphean effort.
Patterns
- a Sisyphean effort to do something
- a Sisyphean effort of something
Cleaning the beach after each tide felt like a Sisyphean effort.
Keeping the garden free of weeds was a Sisyphean effort.
The volunteers' Sisyphean effort to answer every email went on for weeks.
Common combinations
- a Sisyphean effort
- Tidying a house with five kids is a Sisyphean effort.
- Sisyphean effort to
- It was a Sisyphean effort to keep the river clean.
- endless Sisyphean effort
- The endless Sisyphean effort exhausted the team.
- engage in Sisyphean effort
- Critics said the board engaged in Sisyphean effort.
Synonyms and how they differ
- uphill struggle
- This is more everyday and suggests a hard task that can still be won.
- thankless task
- This emphasizes lack of reward, while Sisyphean emphasizes endless repetition.
- futile labor
- This stresses that the work achieves nothing, and is less colorful.
- treadmill
- This is an image of constant effort without progress and is more informal.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: Sisyphean effort or Herculean?
Sisyphean effort vs Herculean
A Herculean effort is a huge effort that can succeed, while a Sisyphean one never reaches an end.
Practice
Why is mopping the floor while it keeps raining indoors a Sisyphean effort?
Choose one answer.
Sisyphean means endless, repetitive and pointless. Great strength once would be a Herculean effort.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “Sisyphean effort”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.