Definition: not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure
Usage: a difficult task; nesting places on the cliffs are difficult of access; difficult times; why is it so hard for you to keep a secret?
Similar words: challenging, ambitious
Definition: requiring full use of your abilities or resources
Usage: ambitious schedule; performed the most challenging task without a mistake
Similar words: arduous
Definition: difficult to accomplish; demanding considerable mental effort and skill
Usage: the arduous work of preparing a dictionary
Similar words: awkward, unenviable, sticky, embarrassing
Definition: hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment
Usage: awkward (or embarrassing or difficult) moments in the discussion; an awkward pause followed his remark; a sticky question; in the unenviable position of resorting to an act he had planned to save for the climax of the campaign
Similar words: elusive, tough, baffling, problematic, problematical, knotty
Definition: making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
Usage: a baffling problem; I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast; a problematic situation at home
Definition: having concealed difficulty
Usage: a catchy question; a tricky recipe to follow
Similar words: delicate, touchy, ticklish
Definition: difficult to handle; requiring great tact
Usage: delicate negotiations with the big powers; hesitates to be explicit on so ticklish a matter; a touchy subject
Similar words: fractious
Definition: unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be troublesome
Usage: rockets were much too fractious to be tested near thickly populated areas; fractious components of a communication system
Similar words: hard-fought
Definition: requiring great effort
Usage: a hard-fought primary
Similar words: herculean
Definition: extremely difficult; requiring the strength of a Hercules
Usage: a herculean task
Definition: exasperatingly difficult to handle or circumvent
Usage: a nasty problem; a good man to have on your side in a tight situation
Definition: full of hardship or trials
Usage: the rocky road to success; they were having a rough time
Definition: very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution
Usage: a rugged competitive examination; the rugged conditions of frontier life; the competition was tough; it's a tough life; it was a tough job
Similar words: serious
Definition: requiring effort or concentration; complex and not easy to answer or solve
Usage: raised serious objections to the proposal; the plan has a serious flaw
Similar words: tall
Definition: impressively difficult
Usage: a tall order
Similar words: thorny
Definition: bristling with perplexities
Usage: the thorny question of states' rights
Similar words: troublesome
Definition: difficult to deal with
Usage: a troublesome infection; a troublesome situation
Similar words: trying
Definition: hard to endure
Usage: fell upon trying times
Similar words: vexed
Definition: causing difficulty in finding an answer or solution; much disputed
Usage: the vexed issue of priorities; we live in vexed and troubled times
Synonyms: heavy, grueling, gruelling, hard, laborious, backbreaking, arduous, toilsome, operose, punishing
Definition: characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort
Usage: worked their arduous way up the mining valley; a grueling campaign; hard labor; heavy work; heavy going; spent many laborious hours on the project; set a punishing pace
Similar words: effortful
Definition: requiring great physical effort
Synonyms: hard
Definition: dried out
Usage: hard dry rolls left over from the day before
Similar words: stale
Definition: lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age
Usage: stale bread; the beer was stale
Definition: unfortunate or hard to bear
Usage: had hard luck; a tough break
Similar words: bad
Definition: having undesirable or negative qualities
Usage: a bad report card; his sloppy appearance made a bad impression; a bad little boy; clothes in bad shape; a bad cut; bad luck; the news was very bad; the reviews were bad; the pay is bad; it was a bad light for reading; the movie was a bad choice
Synonyms: hard
Definition: resisting weight or pressure
Similar words: adamantine
Definition: having the hardness of a diamond
Similar words: al dente
Definition: of pasta cooked so as to be firm when eaten
Similar words: corneous, hornlike, horny
Definition: made of horn (or of a substance resembling horn)
Definition: of sexual organs; stiff and rigid
Definition: not soft or yielding to pressure
Usage: a firm mattress; the snow was firm underfoot; solid ground
Similar words: stony, granitelike, granitic, rocklike
Definition: hard as granite
Usage: a granitic fist
Definition: converted to solid form (as concrete)
Similar words: woody
Definition: made hard like wood as the result of the deposition of lignin in the cell walls
Similar words: stonelike, petrous
Definition: (of bone especially the temporal bone) resembling stone in hardness
Similar words: semihard
Definition: somewhat hard
Similar words: steely
Definition: resembling steel in hardness
Similar words: unyielding
Definition: resistant to physical force or pressure
Usage: an unyielding head support
Synonyms: hard
Definition: dispassionate
Usage: took a hard look; a hard bargainer;
Similar words: calculating, calculative, scheming, shrewd, conniving
Definition: used of persons
Usage: the most calculating and selfish men in the community
Similar words: case-hardened, hard-boiled, hardened
Definition: used of persons; emotionally hardened
Usage: faced a case-hardened judge
Similar words: steely
Definition: resembling steel as in hardness
Usage: steely eyes; steely nerves like those of a steeplejack
Synonyms: hard
Definition: (of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward or touching the velum
Usage: Russian distinguished between hard consonants and palatalized or soft consonants
Similar words: velar
Definition: produced with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate (as `k' in `cat' and `g' in `gun' and `ng' in `sing')
Definition: being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content
Usage: hard liquor
Synonyms: heavy, intemperate, hard
Definition: given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors
Usage: a hard drinker
Similar words: indulgent
Definition: characterized by or given to yielding to the wishes of someone
Usage: indulgent grandparents
Synonyms: voiceless, unvoiced, hard, surd
Definition: produced without vibration of the vocal cords
Usage: unvoiced consonants such as `p' and `k' and `s'
Similar words: whispered
Definition: spoken in soft hushed tones without vibrations of the vocal cords
Usage: a long whispered conversation
Synonyms: knockout, hard, severe
Definition: very strong or vigorous
Usage: strong winds; a hard left to the chin; a knockout punch; a severe blow
Similar words: strong
Definition: having strength or power greater than average or expected
Usage: a strong radio signal; strong medicine; a strong man