At this point, it's just a war of attrition. Only those who are patient can survive.
Source: tatoeba (5722771)
Attrition
//əˈtɹɪʃən//
Synonyms for "attrition" (163 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (33)
Strong matches (49)
Related words (81)
gratinggrazinggriefimpairmentimpoverishmentinanitioningestionlanguishmentlesseninglevigationlimationlossmashingmitigationnatural wastagepenancepenitencepenitentlypolishingpounding
Show 59 more words
powderingraspingreductionregretregretfulnessregretsregrettingrelaxationremissionremorseremorse of conscienceremorsefulnessrepentancerepiningretractionretrenchmentrubbing awayrueruthsandblastingsandingscouringscrapescrapingscratchscratchingscrubscrubbingscuffshameshamefacednessshamefastnessshamefulnessshiningshorteningshreddingshrinkageslackeningsmashingsmoothingsofteningsorrinesssorrowspendingsquanderingthinningtriturationtruncationusing upwastagewastewastefulnesswasting awayweakeningwearwear and tearwearing awaywearing downwistfulness
Noun(2 words)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
15 entriesAntonyms
1 entriesSynonyms
3 entriesRelated terms
1 entriesderived
11 entrieshas context
5 entriesis a
6 entriesrelated to
8 entriesTranslations
104 translations across 24 languages.
Bulgarian
2 entries- изтриване noun (wearing by friction)
- изтъркване noun (wearing by friction)
Chinese Mandarin
1 entries- 磨損 /磨损 noun (wearing by friction)
Dutch
4 entries- natuurlijke afvloeiing noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
- sleet noun (wearing by friction)
- slijtage noun (wearing by friction)
- verloop noun (loss of participants during an experiment)
Esperanto
4 entries- forfrotiĝo noun (wearing by friction)
- forfrotiĝo noun (wearing of teeth)
- malkreskado noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
- perdo noun (loss of a first or second language or a portion of that language)
Finnish
4 entries- attritio noun (loss of participants during an experiment)
- attritio noun (theology: imperfect contrition or remorse)
- attritio noun (wearing of teeth)
- attritio noun (loss of a first or second language or a portion of that language)
French
2 entries- départs volontaires noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
- usure noun (wearing by friction)
German
4 entries- Abgang noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
- Abnutzung noun (wearing by friction)
- Abnutzung noun (wearing of teeth)
- Abreibung noun (wearing by friction)
Greek
2 entries- τριβή noun (wearing by friction)
- φθορά noun (wearing of teeth)
Hebrew
2 entries- שחיקה noun (wearing by friction)
- שחיקת שיניים noun (wearing of teeth)
Hungarian
4 entries- felmorzsolás noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
- felmorzsolódás noun (wearing by friction)
- felőrlés noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
- felőrlődés noun (wearing by friction)
Inuktitut
1 entries- ᐊᓐᓂᕈᖅᐸᓪᓕᐊᓂᖅ noun (wearing of teeth)
Irish
1 entries- doilíos noun (theology: imperfect contrition or remorse)
Japanese
2 entries- 消耗 noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
- 磨耗 noun (wearing by friction)
Latin
1 entries- attrītiō noun (wearing by friction)
Macedonian
1 entries- три́ење noun (wearing by friction)
Norwegian Bokmål
1 entries- frafall noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
Occitan
4 entries- abrasion noun (wearing by friction)
- abrasion noun (wearing of teeth)
- ameniment noun (gradual reduction in number)
- amermament noun (gradual reduction in number)
Polish
1 entries- but see zmniejszenie noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
Portuguese
1 entries- atrito noun (wearing by friction)
Russian
4 entries- истира́ние noun (wearing by friction)
- стира́ние noun (wearing by friction)
- тре́ние noun (wearing by friction)
- у́быль персона́ла noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
Serbo-Croatian
4 entries- abrazija noun (wearing of teeth)
- atricija noun (theology: imperfect contrition or remorse)
- atricija noun (wearing of teeth)
- habanje noun (wearing by friction)
Spanish
4 entries- abrasión noun (wearing by friction)
- atrición noun (theology: imperfect contrition or remorse)
- deserción noun (loss of participants during an experiment)
- desgaste dental noun (wearing of teeth)
Swedish
4 entries- avfall noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
- bortfall noun (reduction in membership or personnel)
- bortfall noun (loss of participants during an experiment)
- förlust noun (loss of a first or second language or a portion of that language)
Turkish
1 entries- yıpratma noun (wearing by friction)
Sample sentences
12 total sentences available.
Rapid attrition in the number of employees led to an increased workload for those who remained.
Source: tatoeba (9032577)
We're fighting a war of attrition.
Source: tatoeba (9517304)
The US can't fight long wars of attrition.
Source: tatoeba (10767115)
Showing 4 of 12 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.