onerous
American
adjective
-
laborious or oppressive
-
law (of a contract, lease, etc) having or involving burdens or obligations that counterbalance or outweigh the advantages
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of onerous
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin onerōsus, equivalent to oner- (stem of onus ) burden + -ōsus -ous
Explanation
If one teacher gives you three hours of homework a night, that's rough. But if all of your teachers do it, that makes the task of completing your homework an onerous one, to say the least. If something is onerous, it is very difficult to deal with or do. A near synonym is burdensome. In legal usage, onerous describes a contract or lease that has more obligations than advantages. Onerous derives from Middle English, from Old French onereus, from Latin onerōsus, from onus "burden." In English, an onus is a task or duty that is onerous, or very difficult.
Vocabulary lists containing onerous
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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Into the Wild
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
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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.
Under state law, magistrates are to “impose the least onerous conditions” when deciding bail and should set bail “as low as the court determines is necessary” to assure the defendant returns to court.
From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026
County were not onerous, could be complied with easily and did not call for ballots to go uncounted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 28, 2026
And the cost to him really isn’t onerous.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026
They described an onerous search process that entails combing through emails and phones of 13 city officials, including the mayor; as well as the records of more than a dozen rent board members and staffers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
The insubstantial frost feathers ensured that those last twenty feet remained hard, scary, onerous.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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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.
