hardship
Americannoun
-
a condition that is difficult to endure; suffering; deprivation; oppression.
a life of hardship.
- Synonyms:
- misfortune, suffering, affliction, trouble
- Antonyms:
- ease
-
an instance or cause of this; something hard to bear, as a deprivation, lack of comfort, or constant toil or danger.
They faced bravely the many hardships of frontier life.
noun
-
conditions of life difficult to endure
-
something that causes suffering or privation
Synonym Usage
Hardship, privation, austerity refer to a condition hard to endure. Hardship applies to a circumstance in which excessive and painful effort of some kind is required, as enduring acute discomfort from cold, or battling over rough terrain. Privation has particular reference to lack of food, clothing, and other necessities or comforts. Austerity not only includes the ideas of privation and hardship but also implies deliberate control of emotional reactions to these.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hardship
Explanation
If something is a hardship, it causes suffering or unpleasantness. After all the hardship you endured while training for the marathon, you really hope that you’ll do well — or at least finish! The word hard in hardship is a tip-off to its meaning: something that’s a hardship is hard. It could be hard work that you do for a larger goal — like training for the marathon — or it could be a situation that’s hard to endure. If you lose your job, you could end up experiencing financial hardship. Sometimes a hardship is something that just happens, like the hardship people suffer following a disaster.
Vocabulary lists containing hardship
ASVAB Word Knowledge
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Donald Trump Inauguration Address- January 20, 2017
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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.
He told BBC Scotland News: "I admire and respect the quality within Scottish agriculture but I've also got to be mindful for the genuine hardship that families are facing in delivering an affordable shop."
From BBC • Jun. 28, 2026
“The complainants portray complex situations of economic hardship and multidimensional cycles of poverty that do not stem from a single source,” the IFC said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 25, 2026
"Our own 'World Cup' starts on land that is destroyed, devastated, full of hardship and wounds," added his colleague Jaber al-Basheeti, mentioning amputee players, destroyed facilities and numerous shortages of equipment.
From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026
“Mysaria offers a window into a type of hardship that opens Rhaenyra’s eyes to a portion of experience to which she’s had no access,” they say.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 17, 2026
The prison was not a place of shared hardship anymore; it was a hole of desperation.
From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson
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.
