difficult
/ˈdɪfɪkəlt/ adjective, verb
Forms difficults difficulting difficulted
- adjective Hard, not easy, requiring much effort. “difficult of accomplishment”
- adjective (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.”
- adjective (obsolete) Unable or unwilling.
- verb (obsolete, transitive) To make difficult, hinder; to impede; to perplex.
Synonyms
burdensome cumbersome hard arduous challenging nasty sticky effortful rough rocky thistly tough uneath unsimple unmanageable
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English difficult (ca. 1400), a back-formation from difficulte (whence modern difficulty), from Old French difficulté, from Latin difficultas, from difficul, older form of difficilis (“hard to do, difficult”), from dis- + facilis (“easy”); see difficile. Replaced native Middle English earveþ (“difficult, hard”), from Old English earfoþe (“difficult, laborious, full of hardship”), cognate to German Arbeit (“work”).
The verb is from the adjective, partly after Middle French difficulter and its etymon Latin difficultō. Compare difficilitate, difficultate, and Italian difficoltare.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Hard to do or to make; beset with difficulty; attended with labor, trouble, or pains; not easy; arduous.
- adjective Hard to manage or to please; not easily wrought upon; austere; stubborn; as, a difficult person.
- verb To render difficult; to impede; to perplex. [R.] Sir W. Temple.
Etymology [From Difficulty.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “difficult”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details