drudgery
Americannoun
plural
drudgeriesnoun
Usage
What are other ways to say drudgery?
Drudgery refers to menial, distasteful, or hard work. How is drudgery different from work, labor, or toil? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
Etymology
Origin of drudgery
Explanation
If you’ve ever had to do the laundry, wash the dishes, make the meals, change the bedding, vacuum the house, and clean the bathrooms day after day, you’ve experienced drudgery. Drudgery is hard, mindless, backbreaking work. When you say the word drudgery, you can almost feel the hard, plodding work that it describes. You have to put some effort into saying the dr- sound. Then, as soon as you get through the breathy -u-, you’ve got two more hard sounds in -dg- and -er- before you get another break with the final vowel sound. Just as you might drag yourself doing those repetitive, grinding chores, you have to drag your way through pronouncing the word.
Vocabulary lists containing drudgery
Labor Day Lexicon: Words That Put You To Work
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The Things They Carried
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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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
In death as in life, the only relief he can find is in the bookkeeping drudgery that has become not just his identity but his very soul.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 18, 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
They come for an escape from the drudgery of daily life, even planning vacations around his concerts.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 3, 2025
Had he been just a little bit older and had he had to face the drudgery of programming with computer cards, he says, he would have studied science.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
