difficult
Americanadjective
-
not easily or readily done; requiring much labor, skill, or planning to be performed successfully; hard.
a difficult job.
- Synonyms:
- arduous
- Antonyms:
- easy
-
hard to understand or solve.
a difficult problem.
- Antonyms:
- simple
-
hard to deal with or get on with.
a difficult pupil.
-
hard to please or satisfy.
a difficult employer.
- Synonyms:
- fussy, finical, particular
-
hard to persuade or induce; stubborn.
a difficult old man.
- Synonyms:
- uncompromising, obdurate
-
disadvantageous; trying; hampering.
The operation was performed under the most difficult conditions.
-
fraught with hardship, especially financial hardship.
We saw some difficult times during the depression years.
adjective
-
not easy to do; requiring effort
a difficult job
-
not easy to understand or solve; intricate
a difficult problem
-
hard to deal with; troublesome
a difficult child
-
not easily convinced, pleased, or satisfied
a difficult audience
-
full of hardships or trials
difficult times ahead
Related Words
See hard.
Other Word Forms
- difficultly adverb
- nondifficult adjective
- quasi-difficult adjective
- quasi-difficultly adverb
- superdifficult adjective
- superdifficultly adverb
- undifficult adjective
- undifficultly adverb
Etymology
Origin of difficult
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, back formation from difficulty ( def. )
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.
But the scale of the demonstrations — stretching from major international metropolitan hubs to small towns in rural America — signals a level of mobilization that is increasingly difficult to ignore.
From Salon
"The arms market is quite a delicate thing and succeeding there with one swift move or a single tour ... is very difficult," Magda said.
From Barron's
That’s already happening in Los Angeles, but depending on the site, the conversions can be difficult and expensive.
From Los Angeles Times
"It's creative, I don't have the use of both of my arms so being creative is very difficult for me."
From BBC
Without competition nipping at its heels, Bell Labs engineers had the luxury of working out difficult ideas over decades.
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.
