arduous
Americanadjective
-
requiring great exertion; laborious; difficult.
an arduous undertaking.
- Synonyms:
- exhausting, burdensome, wearisome, onerous, toilsome, hard
- Antonyms:
- easy
-
requiring or using much energy and vigor; strenuous.
making an arduous effort.
-
hard to climb; steep.
an arduous path up the hill.
-
hard to endure; full of hardships; severe.
an arduous winter.
adjective
-
requiring great physical or mental effort; difficult to accomplish; strenuous
-
hard to endure; harsh
arduous conditions
-
hard to overcome or surmount; steep or difficult
an arduous track
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of arduous
First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin arduus “erect, laborious, steep”
Explanation
Use the adjective arduous to describe an activity that takes a lot of effort. Writing all those college essays and filling out the applications is an arduous process! Arduous was first used in English to mean "steep" or "difficult to climb." If you're an outdoorsman, hiking up a mountain is a lot of fun, but if you're a couch potato, it's an arduous trek. Today, the word can be used figuratively for something that is difficult or takes a lot of work. If you spend an arduous week studying for your final exams, you'll do well because you've worked really hard!
Vocabulary lists containing arduous
100 SAT Words Beginning with "A"
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "A"
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Grade 10, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Arduous journeys are often compounded by long queues at the bridge.
From Reuters • Aug. 29, 2023
Kim's warning of a "great life-or-death struggle" in 2022 echoes last April's rhetoric urging officials to prepare for another "Arduous March", referencing North Korea's greatest economic crisis and famine in the 1990s.
From BBC • Jan. 1, 2022
The Arduous March had many causes, but probably the main one was the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
From New York Times • Feb. 14, 2019
He was fascinated by iron age corpses preserved in peat, and by the job of cutting turf: Arduous, routine but satisfying.
From BBC • Aug. 30, 2013
Arduous as the Prince's march had been to Kelso, it was enlivened by some incidents in which the stern and haughty Lord George Murray must have participated, as well as the gallant young Chevalier.
From Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745 Volume III. by Thomson, Mrs.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
