# hard

Pronunciation: US say "HARD" /hɑɹd/; UK say "HAHD" /hɑːd/

## Adjective

1. Difficult, demanding effort to do, understand or get through.
   - Simple: Difficult, needing a lot of effort or skill to do or understand.
   - _Learning the language was hard at first._
   - _The second half of the book is hard going._
3. Of a material or substance, firm and solid, and not easily pressed, dented, cut, or broken.
   - Simple: Firm and solid, not soft, so it is difficult to press, bend, or break.
   - _Diamond is hard enough to cut glass._
   - _The frost left the ground hard as iron._
4. Painful to bear, the difficulty lying in enduring rather than in doing.
   - Simple: Difficult to live through or bear, as in a hard life.
   - _Those were hard years for the farmers._
   - _It's been a hard week for the whole family._
8. Of a blow, kick, hit, or shot, carrying great physical force.
   - Simple: Used about a hit, kick, or shot that is done with a lot of force.
   - _A hard tackle in the first half left the striker limping._
   - _She hit a hard forehand down the line that her opponent couldn't reach._
5. Severe and harsh, without softness or mercy.
   - Simple: Harsh and unkind, with no softness, as in a hard master.
   - _The judge has a reputation for being hard._
   - _Life had made her hard._
6. Describing music or a musical style that is loud, heavy, and driving, with an aggressive edge.
   - Simple: Used about music that is loud, heavy, and strong, with an angry or rough feel.
   - _Fans of the group's early hard sound were let down by the ballads on the new record._
   - _Their second album is harder than the first, all distorted guitars and pounding drums._
7. Of copies, records or media, physical rather than digital.
   - Simple: Printed on paper or stored on a physical object, not digital, as in hard copy.
   - _Keep a hard copy in case the server fails._
   - _The town's old maps were never scanned and exist only in hard copy._
9. Definite and firm, beyond question or dispute.
   - Simple: Definite and solid, that cannot be argued with, as in hard evidence.
   - _We need hard figures before the board meets._
   - _His refusal was a hard no._
11. Of a drink that is ordinarily nonalcoholic, made in an alcoholic form.
   - Simple: Of a drink that is usually soft, made with alcohol, as in hard cider.
   - _Hard lemonade comes in cans now._
   - _Is this cider hard or sweet?_
12. Of liquor or narcotics, potent, with a high alcohol content or a powerful effect on the user.
   - Simple: Of drink or drugs, strong, with a lot of alcohol or a powerful effect.
   - _They moved from beer to the hard stuff._
   - _Hard drugs carry the longest sentences._
13. Of water, rich in dissolved minerals, chiefly calcium and magnesium salts, which leave scale and resist lathering with soap.
   - Simple: Of water, containing a lot of dissolved minerals, so soap lathers badly.
   - _Soft water lathers where hard water will not._
   - _A softener takes the calcium out of hard water._
14. Of a person, tough, formidable and ready to fight, or pretending to be. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Tough and not to be messed with, in slang, as in he thinks he's hard.
   - _Nobody in that pub was as hard as he claimed._
   - _She's hard, and the bouncers know it._
15. Of a man, sexually aroused and having an erection. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Of a man, sexually aroused, with an erection, a vulgar slang use.
   - _Anxiety can keep a man from getting hard._
   - _He was already hard._
16. Of a reset or restart, done with the power switch or a button rather than by an instruction to the system.
   - Simple: Done by a physical action like cutting the power, not by a software command.
   - _If it freezes, do a hard restart._
   - _A hard power-off can corrupt the disk._
17. Of a turn or junction, sharp, through a right angle or more.
   - Simple: Of a turn at a junction, sharp, at a right angle or more, as in a hard left.
   - _Our street is the hard left that doubles back behind the gas station, not the gentle one._
   - _A hard right turn took us onto the ridge road._
18. In politics, extreme and uncompromising, at the far end of a wing.
   - Simple: In politics, extreme, at the far end of the left or the right.
   - _The hard left walked out of the conference._
   - _Hard nationalists dominated the debate._
20. Of a consonant, plosive: pronounced by fully stopping the airflow and then releasing it, as the c in clock is.
   - Simple: Used about a consonant sound made by stopping the air and then letting it out, like the c in cake.
   - _In gift the g is hard, but in giant it is soft._
   - _Cat begins with a hard c, while city begins with a soft one._
21. Excellent, impressive or striking, especially of music, clothes or moves. *(slang)*
   - Simple: Excellent or impressive, in slang, as in this song goes hard.
   - _The whole album goes hard from the first song._
   - _Those sneakers are hard._
24. Of pornography, explicit in what it shows rather than merely suggesting it.
   - Simple: Of pornography, hardcore, showing sex acts explicitly rather than suggesting them.
   - _Censors passed the soft version and cut the hard one._
   - _The late-night channel shows soft porn but is not allowed to air hard porn._
25. In photography, of light, coming from a small or distant source and casting sharp-edged shadows.
   - Simple: Of light in photography, coming from a small or distant source and casting sharp shadows.
   - _Shoot in the shade to avoid hard light._
   - _A softbox turns a hard source into a gentle one._

## Adverb

2. With great force or effort.
   - Simple: With a lot of force or effort, as in work hard or hit hard.
   - _It rained hard all night._
   - _Try harder next time, and think hard first._
10. With difficulty; nearly always used before a participle.
   - Simple: With difficulty, as in a hard-won victory.
   - _Their peace was hard bought._
   - _The match was hard fought from the first minute._
19. Solidly and compactly, into a firm state, used of freezing, setting or packing.
   - Simple: Firmly and solidly, all the way through, as in frozen hard.
   - _The concrete had set hard by morning._
   - _The leftover soup had frozen hard in the freezer._

## Noun

23. A sentence of hard labor, usually after a stated number of years. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A prison sentence of hard labor, in slang, as in three years' hard.
   - _In the old crime novel, the young poacher is caught by the gamekeeper and sent down for two years' hard._
   - _After three years' hard in the quarry, he came home thin and quiet._

## Adjective

22. Too strong or powerful to be resisted or mastered, nearly always with too and for. *(dated)*
   - Simple: Too strong to resist or control, an old use, as in too hard for them.

## Adverb

26. Close by; at only a short distance from something, often followed by a word like beside or to. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Close beside something, only a short way off.
   - _The farmhouse sat hard beside the river, and its cellar flooded every spring._
   - _Footsteps followed hard behind her as she hurried down the dark lane._

## Other meanings

- (adjective) In bodybuilding, of a physique or muscle, firm and defined from intense regular training, with the fat gone.
- (adjective) Of a consonant: pronounced with relatively strong muscular tension and breath force; in phonetic terms, fortis rather than lenis.
- (adjective) Of wine, harsh with acidity or tannin, lacking the softness that ripeness or age brings.
- (adjective) Of electromagnetic radiation, high in energy and frequency and short in wavelength, and so more penetrating.
- (adjective) Of a ferromagnetic material, having high coercivity, so that once magnetized it stays so and can serve as a permanent magnet.
- (noun) Crack cocaine, as distinct from the powder form.
- (adjective) In military use, built or fortified to withstand attack.
- (adjective) In finance and insurance, of a market, tight, with demand outrunning supply so that sellers set the terms.
- (adjective) Of a consonant, pronounced without vibration of the vocal cords, like the sound of k.
- (adjective) Of a consonant in languages such as Russian, plain or velarized rather than softened by a y-like raising of the tongue.
- (adjective) Of a drawing or painting, stiff and awkward in the way its figures are placed, without grace or flow.
- (adjective) Showing harsh, sudden jumps between colors or between light and shadow.
- (adjective) Of silk, still coated with its natural gum, which has not been removed by degumming.
- (adverb) In a way that causes trouble or problems.
- (noun) A stretch of solid ground or paving on a shore where boats can be pulled up out of the water.
- (noun) A racing tire with a firmer rubber mix than a medium but not as firm as a superhard.
- (verb) To cause something to become firm or solid.

## Origin

From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, going back through Proto-Germanic *harduz, traditionally traced to a Proto-Indo-European root *kret- meaning "strong, powerful," which would link it to Ancient Greek kratús ("strong, mighty"). It is related to Dutch hard, German hart and the Scandinavian words for "hard."

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