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
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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Grade 10, List 2
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30 GRE Words Beginning with "A"
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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.
Uri Shulevitz’s tale of his family’s arduous journey out of Poland to escape the Nazis during World War II has every appearance of being solely for children.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
So, too, are the movies that depict journalism’s procedures and how arduous and exhausting they are.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
Targeting the German market, the company aims to "relieve" drivers of repetitive and arduous tasks through its AI solutions.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
Even when there are direct heirs involved, they might not be up to the arduous administrative task of being a trustee or executor after the death of the principal.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
There’s also a very practical reason for clambering up and down mountains, or doing anything arduous and unglamorous, what PIH-ers called “scut work.”
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
