hardship

[hahrd-ship]

noun

1. a condition that is difficult to endure; suffering; deprivation; oppression.

   a life of hardship.

   Synonyms: misfortune, suffering, affliction, trouble
   Antonyms: ease

2. 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.

hardship

/ ˈhɑːdʃɪp /

noun

1. conditions of life difficult to endure

2. something that causes suffering or privation

Word History and Origins

Origin of hardship¹

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English; hard + -ship

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

The problem extends beyond New Jersey, she said—across nearly every coastal town, wealth and hardship exist side by side.

Read more on Salon

Between 400 and 600 trucks were expected to enter to bolster existing aid deliveries and help alleviate two years of war and hardship.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He recalls being told by the Pakistani mullahs - who he thinks were more political and more extreme than those he had encountered in Afghanistan - that Muslims must prevail so that hardship would not overwhelm them.

Read more on BBC

Closed campuses, economic hardship and disease held back student achievement starting in March of 2020.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

After all, she technically chose this life, elected to be a mother no matter the hardships.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• adversity 
• calamity 
• catastrophe 
• danger 
• difficulty 
• disaster 
• discomfort 
• fatigue 
• grief 
• hazard 
• injury 
• misery 
• misfortune 
• oppression 
• peril 
• persecution 
• sorrow 
• suffering 
• torment 
• trouble