attempt

UK/əˈtɛmpt/US/əˈtɛmpt/

verbB22 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,570 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: attempted, attempts, attempting

To attempt something is to try to do it. The trying is what the word records, not the succeeding.

That is the useful part, since an attempt implies the outcome is open, and a failed attempt is a perfectly normal phrase. It works as a noun and a verb without changing shape, so you make an attempt or you attempt it. It takes to and a verb. Formal and legal writing prefer it to try, which is why an attempted burglary is a charge and a first attempt is what an examiner records.

Definitions of attempt

1verbattemptTo make an effort to do something.B2~17%
“He attempted to open the window.”
2nounactAn act of trying to do something.B1~83%
“It was her third attempt at the exam.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 18 sentences found in the wild and placed 18 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Where it comes from

Attempt is Latin attemptō, to try or to solicit, from ad, towards, and temptō, the verb behind tempt. An attempt and a temptation are the same reaching-out.

Proto-Indo-European
*tend-
Latin
attemptō
Old French
atempter
Middle English
attempten
English, today
attempt

Built from

ad- · Latin — to

From Middle English attempten, from Old French atempter, from Latin attemptō. Late 14th century, as Middle English attempten, from Old French atempter, from Latin attemptō (“to try, solicit”), from ad- (“to”) + temptō; see tempt. The noun is from the 1530s, the sense "an assault on somebody's life, assassination attempt" (French attentat) is from 1580. by surface analysis, at- + tempt.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

attempt in the wild

With the Nazi secret police, the Gestapo, closing in on the plotters, a final attempt was organised in July 1944.
20 July plot
In the months after the coup attempt, the Gestapo arrested more than 7,000 people, 4,980 of whom were executed.
20 July plot
On December 22, 2001, a failed shoe bombing attempt occurred aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
American Airlines Flight 63 (2001)
The attempt took place between 19 and 21 August 1991; as a result, the events were referred to as the August Coup.
1991 Soviet coup attempt
Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions.
Attempted murder

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

Definitions of attempt

1verbattemptTo make an effort to do something.B2~17%

“He attempted to open the window.”

2nounactAn act of trying to do something.B1~83%

“It was her third attempt at the exam.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 18 sentences found in the wild and placed 18 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.