strife
/stɹaɪf/noun
strife is spelled S-T-R-I-F-E: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “strife vs strive” about 30 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, strife means “Striving; earnest endeavor; hard work” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of strife is strifes.
How many letters and syllables are in strife?
| Letters | 6: S-T-R-I-F-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.5 times per million words; the 17,122nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is strife?
Strife appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce strife?
- /stɹaɪf/
Strife has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-strife.ogg, En-au-strife.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with strife
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: strive.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with strife?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as strife.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: fister, sifter.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of strife
- strifes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does strife mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Striving; earnest endeavor; hard work.
- 2
Exertion or contention for superiority, either by physical or intellectual means.
- 3
Bitter conflict, sometimes violent.
A few observations about the interpretation of vows or pledges may not be out of place here. Interpretation of pledges has been a fruitful source of strife all the world over. No matter how explicit the pledge, people will turn and twist th
- 4
colloquialA trouble of any kind.
- 5
obsoleteThat which is contended against; occasion of contest.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Strife in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense violent conflict:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | différends, dispute, querelle |
| German | Streit, Unfriede |
| Portuguese | conflito, disputa, discórdia |
| Spanish | disensión, altercado |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does strife come from?
From Middle English strif, stryf, striffe, from Old French estrif, noun derived from estriver, from Frankish *strīban; compare Dutch strijven. More at strive.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).