drudgery
Usage
What are other ways to say drudgery?
Drudgery suggests continuous, dreary, and dispiriting work, especially of a menial or servile kind: the drudgery of household tasks. Labor particularly denotes hard manual work: backbreaking labor; arduous labor. Toil suggests wearying or exhausting labor: toil that breaks down the worker's health. Work is the general word and may apply to exertion that is either easy or hard: fun work; heavy work.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Mr. Naiden, now a professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, gives us a vivid feeling for both the drudgery and the danger of life working on the subway.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
People who ignore or undervalue prompting will remain trapped in the drudgery of manual operations, where data points must be located and assembled.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 25, 2026
There was a time when such a brutal schedule would have seemed like pure drudgery.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 25, 2025
Enduring the dour drudgery of “Last Rites,” it’s never been clearer that it’s time to give up the ghost.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 4, 2025
This was a day for adventure, not drudgery.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
Vocabulary lists containing drudgery
Labor Day Lexicon: Words That Put You To Work
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The Things They Carried
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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