English Synonyms and Antonyms

Effort denotes the voluntary putting forth of power to attain or accomplish some specific thing; it reaches
toward a definite end; exertion is a putting forth of power without special reference to an object. Every effort
is an exertion, but not every exertion is an effort. Attempt is more experimental than effort, endeavor less
strenuous but more continuous. An effort is a single act, an endeavor a continued series of acts; an endeavor is
sustained and enduring, and may be lifelong; we do not have a society of Christian Attempt, or of Christian
Effort, but of Christian Endeavor. A struggle is a violent effort or strenuous exertion. An essay is an attempt,
effort, or endeavor made as a test of the powers of the one who makes it. Compare ENDEAVOR, v.
* * * * *
ENDURE.
Synonyms:
abide, bear, brook, submit to, sustain, afford, bear up under, permit, suffer, tolerate, allow, bear with, put up
with, support, undergo.
Bear is the most general of these words; it is metaphorically to hold up or keep up a burden of care, pain,
grief, annoyance, or the like, without sinking, lamenting, or repining. Allow and permit involve large
concession of the will; put up with and tolerate imply decided aversion and reluctant withholding of
opposition or interference; whispering is allowed by the school-teacher who does not forbid nor censure it;
one puts up with the presence of a disagreeable visitor; a state tolerates a religion which it would be glad to
suppress. To endure is to bear with strain and resistance, but with conscious power; endure conveys a fuller
suggestion of contest and conquest than bear. One may choose to endure the pain of a surgical operation
rather than take anesthetics; he permits the thing to come which he must brace himself to endure when it
comes. To afford is to be equal to a pecuniary demand, i. e., to be able to bear it. To brook is quietly to put up
with provocation or insult. Abide combines the senses of await and endure; as, I will abide the result.
Compare ABIDE; SUPPORT.
Antonyms:
break, despair, fail, fall, give out, sink, surrender, break down, droop, faint, falter, give up, succumb, yield.
* * * * *
ENEMY.
Synonyms:
adversary, antagonist, competitor, foe, opponent, rival.
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
128

---

An enemy in private life is one who is moved by hostile feeling with active disposition to injure; but in
military language all who fight on the opposite side are called enemies or collectively "the enemy," where no
personal animosity may be implied; foe, which is rather a poetical and literary word, implies intensely hostile
spirit and purpose. An antagonist is one who opposes and is opposed actively and with intensity of effort; an
opponent, one in whom the attitude of resistance is the more prominent; a competitor, one who seeks the same
object for which another is striving; antagonists in wrestling, competitors in business, opponents in debate
may contend with no personal ill will; rivals in love, ambition, etc., rarely avoid inimical feeling. Adversary
was formerly much used in the general sense of antagonist or opponent, but is now less common, and largely
restricted to the hostile sense; an adversary is ordinarily one who not only opposes another in fact, but does so
with hostile spirit, or perhaps out of pure malignity; as, the great Adversary. Compare synonyms for
AMBITION.
Antonyms:
abettor, accessory, accomplice, ally, friend, helper, supporter.
Prepositions:
He was the enemy of my friend in the contest.
* * * * *
ENMITY.
Synonyms:
acrimony, bitterness, ill will, malignity, animosity, hatred, malevolence, rancor, antagonism, hostility, malice,
spite.