difficult

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Contents

English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From difficulty, from Middle English difficultee, from Old French difficulté, from Latin difficultas, from difficul, older form of difficilis (“hard to do, difficult”), from dis- + facilis (“easy”); see difficile.

Pronunciation [edit]

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈdɪfɪkəlt/
  • Audio (UK)
    		(file)
  • (US) IPA: /ˈdɪfɪˌkʌlt/, /ˈdɪfɪkl̩t/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)

Adjective [edit]

difficult (comparative more difficult, superlative most difficult)

  1. Hard, not easy, requiring much effort.
    • 2008, Daniel Goleman, Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama (ISBN 0307483762), page 199:
      In adults, the same kind of anger has been studied in people trying to solve a very difficult math problem. Though the tough math problem is very frustrating, there is an active attempt to solve the problem and meet the goal.
  2. (often of a person, or a horse, etc) Hard to manage, uncooperative, troublesome.
    • Stop being difficult and eat your broccoli—you know it's good for you.

Usage notes [edit]

Difficult implies that considerable mental effort or physical skill is required, or that obstacles are to be overcome which call for sagacity and skill in the doer; as, a difficult task. Thus, "hard" is not always synonymous with difficult: Other examples include a difficult operation in surgery and a difficult passage by an author (that is, a passage which is hard to understand).

Synonyms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

hard, not easy

Verb [edit]

difficult (third-person singular simple present difficults, present participle difficulting, simple past and past participle difficulted)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To make difficult; to impede; to perplex.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir W. Temple to this entry?)

Statistics [edit]

External links [edit]

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