【Attempt】 , 【try】 , 【endeavor】 , 【essay】 , 【strive】 , 【struggle】 as verbs mean to make an effort to do something that may or may not be successful and as nouns (the single exception in form being striving) mean the effort made to accomplish such an end.

【Attempt】 implies an actual beginning of or venturing upon something that one hopes to accomplish or carry through and often suggests failure.

【Try】 is often thought of as a simpler equivalent of 【attempt】 ; in discriminating use, however, the two terms are distinguishable by subtle differences in meaning. 【Try】 seldom loses the implication of effort or experiment directed toward the end of ascertaining a fact or of testing or proving a thing.

This implication is especially apparent in some idiomatic phrases; thus, one tries a window by attempting to open it so as to find out if it is fastened; one tries one’s hand at something by attempting to do something new to test one’s ability or aptitude; one tries one’s luck with the horses by betting on horse races in the hope of proving one’s luck.

【Try】 is the word of choice when effort or experiment or testing are stressed rather then a venturing upon or undertaking.

【Endeavor】 heightens the implication of exertion and should be avoided as too strong when likelihood of success is implied. It often connotes a striving to fulfill a duty or obey a sense of fitness.

【Essay】 implies that the thing to be accomplished is especially difficult; otherwise it combines the foremost implications of 【attempt】 (that is, making a beginning) by suggesting a tentative effort and of 【try】 (that is, experiment) by suggesting the testing of a thing’s feasibility.

The last terms of this group, 【strive】 and 【struggle】 , not only carry heightened implications of difficulty and of correspondingly greater exertion, but also connote greater opposition to be overcome.

【Strive】 and striving suggest persistent 【endeavor】 to surmount obstacles created by one’s weaknesses, one’s lack of experience, the height of one’s ambitions, or the power of resisting forces.

【Struggle】 literally and figuratively implies straining or stretching that suggests a tussle, a wrestling, or an effort to extricate oneself from what impedes or fetters.