Meaning & use
strife
Last updated
UK/straɪf/
US/straɪf/
Meanings
noununcountable
Bitter conflict or disagreement, especially lasting.
Grammar: Uncountable: the strife between families.
Patterns
- strife between someone
- strife over something
Years of strife divided the region.
Their marriage was full of strife.
Political strife closed the schools.
noununcountableliteraryold-fashioned
A struggle or effort to compete.
Grammar: Older and literary use.
Patterns
- life of strife
A life of toil and strife.
The poet wrote of the strife of nature.
Competition and strife drove them.
Common combinations
- civil strife
- Civil strife broke out in the capital.
- internal strife
- The party suffered internal strife.
- ethnic strife
- Ethnic strife spread.
- cause strife
- Money caused strife in the family.
- marital strife
- Marital strife ended in divorce.
Synonyms and how they differ
- conflict
- Conflict is the general word.
- discord
- Discord means disagreement, often milder.
- turmoil
- Turmoil describes confusion and disorder.
- friction
- Friction is milder tension.
Opposites
Word family
- strive verb
- to try hard (related by sense of struggle)
Commonly confused: strife or strike? strife or stripe?
strife vs strike
A strike is a work stoppage or a hit.
strife vs stripe
A stripe is a band of color.
Practice
Which word best fits: the region was torn by civil ___.
Choose one answer.
Civil strife means conflict within a country.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “strife”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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