hardship
Americannoun
-
hardships
plural
-
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.
See Examples For:
Beyond that, most energy suppliers offer hardship grants for people struggling to pay their bills and the government's Fuel Direct Scheme, external can help you repay energy debt.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
She said Big Bang's perseverance through hardship made their music mean even more.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
Money mismanagement is an underreported contributor to financial hardship in this country.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 26, 2026
“You see all this wealth but you don’t see the hardship that people are going through.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
She had the same thought Katie had had seventeen years ago dancing with Johnny—that she’d willingly accept any sacrifice or hardship if she could only have this man near her for always.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Together the Bakkers spoke of the souls saved and the hardships overcome by those who put their lives in the hands of the Lord.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Those hardships are visible after sunset, when electricity fails, disappearing entire neighborhoods into stifling darkness.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
And the hardships of work meet the challenges faced by immigrants in the paintings of Lily Honglei.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
This was intended as a practical, moderate solution to the economic hardships of the era.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026
They had suffered their own hardships and losses during the war and weren't interested in ours.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
