From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Strife \Strife\, noun [OF. estrif. See {Strive}.]
1. The act of striving; earnest endeavor. [Archaic] --Shak.
2. Exertion or contention for superiority; contest of emulation, either by intellectual or physical efforts.
Doting about questions and strifes of words. --1 Tim. vi. 4.
Thus gods contended -- noble strife Who most should ease the wants of life. --Congreve.
3. Altercation; violent contention; fight; battle.
Twenty of them fought in this black strife. --Shak.
These vows, thus granted, raised a strife above Betwixt the god of war and queen of love. --Dryden.
4. That which is contended against; occasion of contest. [Obs.] ''Lamenting her unlucky strife.'' --Spenser.
Syn: Contest; struggle; quarrel. See {Contention}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: lack of agreement or harmony [syn: {discord}]
2: bitter conflict; heated often violent dissension
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
73 Moby Thesaurus words for "strife": Kilkenny cats, altercation, animosity, antagonism, arguing, argument, bad blood, bicker, bickering, blood feud, brawl, broil, cat-and-dog life, combat, competition, conflict, contention, contentiousness, contest, contestation, controversy, cut and thrust, debate, difference, disagreement, discord, disharmony, disputation, dispute, dissension, donnybrook, donnybrook fair, embroilment, enmity, feud, fight, fighting, fliting, fracas, friction, fuss, hard feelings, hatred, hostility, ill will, imbroglio, litigation, logomachy, open quarrel, paper war, polemic, quarrel, quarreling, quarrelsomeness, rivalry, scrapping, sharp words, slanging match, snarl, spat, squabble, squabbling, struggle, tiff, tussle, unfriendliness, vendetta, war, war of words, warfare, words, wrangle, wrangling
Define.com is a registered nonprofit corporation dedicated solely to the global public interest and the advancement of humanity. It belongs to all of us who have a desire to promote electronic democracy, science, creativity, imagination, reason, critical thinking, peace, race and gender equality, civil rights, equal access to education, personal liberty, free speech, animal rights, compassionate and nonviolent parenting, social and economic justice, global monetary reform, Secular Humanism, cognitive liberty and a permanent cessation of The War on Drugs.
Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
0