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effortful

adjective

Simple meaning

Requiring great physical effort.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ehfertfuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɛfɚtfəl

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Requiring great physical effort

  2. Requiring or showing effort.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Typical Use
Rare

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

effortful controlless effortfuleffortful processeffortful thinkingeffortful attentioneffortful activityleast effortfuleffortful speech

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • hard

    Not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure.

  • laborious

    Requiring much physical effort.

  • heavy

    Of comparatively great physical weight or density.

  • strenuous

    Requiring great exertion.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • effortlessadjectiveDerived adjective

    Requiring or apparently requiring no effort.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: requiring great physical effort

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.