Thrive is an intransitive verb -- it never takes a direct object, so "thrive a business" or "thrive our revenue" simply isn't a sentence a fluent speaker would write. Once that's fixed, the only real choice is which of three prepositions to use, and each one does a different job: "on" names the source of energy, "in" names the surrounding environment, and "under" names the condition someone is operating within.
Naming the source: thrive on
When the sentence is about what specifically fuels someone's performance -- a challenge, a level of complexity, chaos itself -- "on" is the preposition.
"The new CEO thrives on the challenge of restructuring underperforming departments."
"Thrive on complexity" follows the same logic: the thing after "on" isn't just present, it's the actual fuel. That's also why "thrive with pressure" doesn't work as a substitute -- "with" suggests pressure is merely accompanying the person, not driving their performance.
Naming the environment: thrive in / thrive under
When the sentence is about the setting or the conditions someone operates in, rather than what energizes them specifically, "in" and "under" take over.
"Many agile developers find they thrive in a remote-first culture that prioritizes asynchronous communication."
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Start learning for free →"Thrive in uncertainty" and "thrive under leadership" both fit this pattern -- "in" for a culture, market, or environment; "under" for a condition someone is subject to, like scrutiny or a particular leader.
What doesn't collocate
The most common error is treating thrive as transitive: "if we execute this strategy well, we will thrive our revenue by twenty percent" gives thrive a direct object it can't take -- "increase" or "grow" is the verb that sentence actually needs. The second error is the wrong preposition after thrive: "diverse teams thrive to collaborative environments" should be "thrive in," since "to" signals direction, not a surrounding environment. A third, related mix-up is "thrive the industry," which makes the same transitive mistake in a different shape -- the correct form is "the industry thrives" or "thrives in the industry."
Practice scenarios
Practice using thrive in situations like:
- describing what specifically energizes a colleague's performance under pressure
- explaining why a team performs well in a particular culture or environment
- catching a transitive-verb mistake before it goes into a performance review
Useful practice phrases:
- "[Name] thrives on [challenge/pressure/complexity]."
- "Our team thrives in a [type of] environment."
- "[Person/team] thrives under [scrutiny/tight deadlines/a strong leader]."