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I want to make this sentence more concise:

Chairman Mao attempted to jumpstart China's agriculture and industry.

Could one replace "attempted to jumpstart" with a single word?

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  • Why try to join 'attempt' or 'try' with 'jumpstart'? keep them separate and just look for a synonym of 'jumpstart' (in a thesaurus).
    – Mitch
    Apr 2, 2012 at 13:04

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The closest word I can think of is jolt, which replaces only the word jumpstart, not the part which reads attempted to. My answer therefore is similar to @shinyspoongod's. I don't believe there is a word that can replace the whole phrase successfully.

I believe your initial sentence communicates the message effectively. You don't need to change anything.

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  • I agree with Irene. There's the notion of jumpstarting, resuscitating, or boosting, etc., and there's the notion of attempting, or trying. So, you can say attempted to jumpstart, or tried to resuscitate, aimed to boost, but I don't know if you can say it all in just one word. Besides, what you quoted doesn't read overly wordy.
    – J.R.
    Apr 1, 2012 at 18:35
  • That makes sense. It's hard to get more concise. Thanks!
    – David Faux
    Apr 1, 2012 at 22:57
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You could try the word "spur". It seems difficult to find the right connotation among synonyms, since most have the voice of assumed success, as opposed to the desired meaning that an attempt was made, without any inference involving the outcome. This is the best I could find.

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  • This fails to take into account the fact that Mao was making an attempt. Spur implies that something was prompted or goaded into action (and, likely, success). If you say "Chairman Mao spurred China's agriculture and industry" you will be perceived as implying that he got them going, which is not necessarily the case.
    – Robusto
    Apr 8, 2012 at 14:09
  • Spur: v. to urge a horse [to move] by digging into its hide with a spur. Does not imply that the horse didn't buck the rider off instead.
    – user19589
    Apr 29, 2012 at 1:46
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What about "charged" or "primed", or maybe "fanned"?

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The only word I can think of which would mean the same as 'jumpstart' and also imply a sense that it had perhaps not already happened would be 'stimulate'.

The sentence would be: "Chairman Mao stimulated China's agriculture and industry.

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