# difficult

Pronunciation: say "DIF-i-kuhlt" /ˈdɪfɪkəlt/

## Adjective

1. Hard; not easy; requiring much effort or skill.
   - Simple: Hard to do or understand, needing a lot of effort.
   - _The climbers turned back when the weather made the ridge too difficult._
   - _Translating poetry is more difficult than translating prose._
2. Marked by trouble, anxiety or hardship, and hard to endure or cope with.
   - Simple: Full of trouble or worry, and hard to get through.
   - _The company faced difficult times after two years of falling sales._
   - _He rarely spoke about his difficult childhood, spent moving between foster homes._
3. Of a person or animal, uncooperative, troublesome, and hard to manage.
   - Simple: Hard to deal with, because a person or animal will not cooperate.
   - _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._

## Verb

4. To create difficulty for something, get in its way, or leave someone confused. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: In old use, to make something hard, block its progress, or confuse someone.

## Adjective

5. Unable or unwilling. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: In old use, not able or not willing to do something.

## 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').

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/difficult (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).