conatus means an effort, an endeavour, a striving. It carries an Arena rating of 1678, earned across 13 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, conatus ranks #1,446 of 17,111 for Most Sublime Words, #1,798 of 17,093 for Most Storied Words, #3,511 of 17,122 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #4,240 of 17,120 for Most Beautiful Words.
conatus is pronounced /kəʊˈneɪ.təs/.
Why “conatus” is a great word
An innate striving or impulse, constituting a being's fundamental force of self-preservation and persistence in existence. From Latin cōnātus, meaning "effort, endeavor, impulse", from the past participle of cōnārī ("to try, to attempt"). Unlike "effort," a conscious exertion, or "instinct," a programmed behavior, conatus is the metaphysical bedrock of a thing's will to be. It is the seedling cracking the pavement, the body's feverish warmth fighting infection, and the weary heart's next stubborn beat—the silent, ceaseless hum of a life insisting upon itself, the irreducible fact of continuation.
noun
- An effort, an endeavour, a striving.
- An effort, an endeavour, a striving.; Such a striving effort that is a life force.
- A force or impulse.e.g.“[E]ach part so moved does by that motion exert a conatus of protruding and displacing all the adjacent Particles.”
Words closest in meaning
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