DictionaryAI

difficult

DIF-i-kuhlt/ˈdɪfɪkəlt/

5 meanings of difficult

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  1. 1
    hardadjective
    Hard; not easy; requiring much effort or skill.

    The climbers turned back when the weather made the ridge too difficult.

    Translating poetry is more difficult than translating prose.

    UsageCompare with more and most: more difficult (not incorrect: difficulter). Often it is difficult to + verb, or difficult for someone.

    Similarhard, challenging, tough, demanding, tricky

    Oppositeeasy, simple

  2. 2
    troubledadjective
    Marked by trouble, anxiety or hardship, and hard to endure or cope with.

    The company faced difficult times after two years of falling sales.

    He rarely spoke about his difficult childhood, spent moving between foster homes.

    UsageMost often with times and circumstances: difficult times, a difficult year, a difficult situation.

    Similarhard, tough, trying, troubled, rough

    Oppositeeasy, happy

    Note

    Here the hardship is lived through rather than solved, so its nouns are stretches of time and circumstance: difficult times, a difficult year, a difficult situation. The noun decides the meaning: a difficult child is hard to manage, while a difficult childhood was hard to live through.

  3. 3
    uncooperativeadjective
    Of a person or animal, uncooperative, troublesome, and hard to manage.

    She had a reputation as a difficult client who changed her mind daily.

    The director was difficult on set but adored by the crew afterward.

    UsageOften being difficult for behavior in the moment: stop being difficult, don't be difficult, as a mild telling-off.

    Similaruncooperative, troublesome

    Oppositecooperative, easygoing, accommodating

    Note

    Here the resistance comes from a will rather than a task. The word is applied to people, and also to horses and other animals, that refuse to cooperate. A difficult person resists you, whereas the "hard to do" meaning describes work that resists effort.

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    verbobsoletetransitive
    To create difficulty for something, get in its way, or leave someone confused.
    Note

    An obsolete verb made straight from the adjective. To difficult something was to put obstacles in its way. William Temple, in a letter of 1678, writes of pretensions "which had difficulted the peace."

  2. 5
    adjectiveobsolete
    Unable or unwilling.
    “I hope, madam,” said Jones, “my charming Lady Bellaston will be as difficult to believe anything against one who is so sensible of the many obligations she hath conferred upon him.”
    1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones
    Note

    In this obsolete use, the reluctance sits in the person, not in the thing. Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) has Jones hope that Lady Bellaston will be "as difficult to believe anything against" him, meaning slow to believe it. A modern reader would take difficult to believe as describing the claim, not the believer.

Practice

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Origin

First appearing in Middle English around 1400 as a back-formation from difficulte (the source of modern difficulty), it came from Old French difficulté and Latin difficultas, from difficilis ('hard to do'), formed from dis- plus facilis ('easy'). It replaced the native Middle English word earveþ ('hard'), from Old English earfoþe, which is related to German Arbeit ('work').

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 8 facts