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English

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.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈdɪfɪkəlt/
Audio (UK): (file)
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Audio (US): (file)

Adjective

difficult (comparative more difficult, superlative most difficult)

Hard, not easy, requiring much effort.
difficult of accomplishment (a somewhat dated way of saying "difficult to accomplish")

However, the difficult weather conditions will ensure Yunnan has plenty of freshwater.

If they're difficult, offer them more.
- 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 17, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
  There is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide, strange, difficult world, alone.
- 2008, Daniel Goleman, Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, →ISBN, 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.
- 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:
  Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. […] But as a foundation for analysis it is highly subjective: it rests on difficult decisions about what counts as a territory, what counts as output and how to value it. Indeed, economists are still tweaking it.
(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.
(obsolete) Unable or unwilling.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
  “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.”

Usage notes

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. Examples include a difficult operation in surgery and a difficult passage by an author (that is, a passage which is hard to understand).

Synonyms

burdensome, cumbersome, hard
see also Thesaurus:difficult

Derived terms

Translations

hard, not easy — see also tricky

Afrikaans: moeilik
Albanian: i vështirë (sq)
Amharic: አስቸጋሪ (ʾäsčägari)
Antillean Creole: rèd, difisil
Arabic: صَعْب (ṣaʕb)
Moroccan Arabic: واعر (waʕr)
Armenian: դժվար (hy) (džvar), բարդ (hy) (bard), ծանր (hy) (canr)
Assamese: টান (tan)
Asturian: difícil (ast)
Azerbaijani: çətin (az), düşvar
Bashkir: ҡыйын (qïyïn), ауыр (awïr)
Basque: nekez (eu), zail
Belarusian: ця́жкі (be) (cjážki), тру́дны (trúdny)
Bengali: কঠিন (bn) (koṭhin)
Bikol:
Central Bikol:
Bikol Legazpi: dipisil (bcl)

Bikol Naga: masakit
Breton: diaes (br)
Bulgarian: тру́ден (bg) (trúden), мъ́чен (bg) (mắčen), те́жък (bg) (téžăk)
Burmese: ခဲယဉ်း (my) (hkai:yany:), ခက် (my) (hkak)
Catalan: difícil (ca)
Cebuano: lisud
Chamicuro: yeewa
Chechen: хала (xala)
Cherokee: ᎤᏦᏍᏗ (utsosdi), ᏍᏓᏯ (sdaya)
Chinese:
Cantonese: 難 / 难 (naan⁴), 困難 / 困难 (kwan³ naan⁴)

Mandarin: 難 / 难 (zh) (nán), 困難 / 困难 (zh) (kùnnán), 艱難 / 艰难 (zh) (jiānnán)

Wu: 難 / 难
Choctaw: pʋlʋmmi
Chukchi: аӈъачеты (aṇʺačety)
Crimean Tatar: qıyın
Czech: obtížný (cs), těžký (cs)
Danish: vanskelig
Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
Dutch: moeilijk (nl)
Egyptian:

(qsn)
Esperanto: malfacila
Estonian: keeruline (et)
Ewe: sẽ̌
Faroese: torførur
Finnish: vaikea (fi), hankala (fi)
French: difficile (fr)
Frisian:
West Frisian: swier (fy)
Galician: difícil (gl), arrevesado
Georgian: ძნელი (ʒneli), რთული (rtuli), მძიმე (ka) (mʒime)
German: schwer (de), schwierig (de)
Gothic: 𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌿𐍃 (aglus)
Greek: δύσκολος (el) (dýskolos)
Ancient Greek: χαλεπός (khalepós), δυσχερής (duskherḗs)
Greenlandic: sapernarpoq
Gujarati: કઠિન (kaṭhin)
Haitian Creole: difisil
Hebrew: קָשֶׁה (he) (kashé), מסובך (mesubbakh)
Hindi: कठिन (hi) (kaṭhin), विकट (hi) (vikaṭ), मुश्किल (hi) (muśkil), दुश्वार (hi) (duśvār), दूभर (hi) (dūbhar)
Hmong:
White Hmong: please add this translation if you can
Hungarian: nehéz (hu)
Icelandic: erfiður (is)
Ido: desfacila (io)
Ilocano: narigat
Indonesian: sukar (id), susah (id), sulit (id)
Ingush: хала (xala)
Interlingua: difficile
Irish: deacair
Old Irish: ansae
Italian: difficile (it)
Japanese: 難しい (ja) (むずかしい, muzukashii), 困難な (ja) (こんなんな, konnan na)
Jeju: 어렵다 (eoryeopda), 심들다 (simdeulda)
Kabuverdianu: puxadu, pexóde, rabés
Kannada: ಕಟ್ (kn) (kaṭ)
Kazakh: қиын (kk) (qıyın), ауыр (awır)
Khmer: ពិបាក (km) (pi’baak), យ៉ាប់ (km) (yap)
Korean: 어렵다 (ko) (eoryeopda), 힘들다 (ko) (himdeulda)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: زەحمەت (zeḧmet), گران (gran), سەخت (sext)
Kyrgyz: кыйын (ky) (kıyın), оор (ky) (oor)
Ladino: difísil, zor
Lao: ຍາກ (nyāk)
Latin: difficilis (la)
Latvian: sarežģīts, grūts
Lithuanian: sunkus (lt)
Macedonian: тежок (težok), мачен (mačen)
Malay: sukar (ms), susah (ms)
Brunei Malay: payah
Maltese: diffiċli (mt)
Manx: doillee, creoi, trome, mooar, neuaashagh
Māori: whēuaua, uaua, taumaha hārukiruki (in the extreme)
Marathi: अवघड (avghaḍ), कठीण (kaṭhīṇ)
Mirandese: defícel
Mon: ဝါတ် (mnw) (wāt)
Mongolian: хэцүү (mn) (xecüü), хүнд (mn) (xünd), бэрх (mn) (berx), хүчир (mn) (xüčir)
Naga:
Khiamniungan Naga: tshīk
Navajo: nantłʼah
Norwegian: vanskelig (no)
Occitan: malaisit (oc), dificil (oc) m
Odia: please add this translation if you can
Old Church Slavonic:
Cyrillic: тѩжькъ (tjęžĭkŭ)
Old English: earfoþe
Pashto: ګران m (grân), مشکل m (muškil)
Persian: دشوار (fa) (došvâr), مشکل (fa) (moškel), سخت (fa) (saxt), صعب (fa) (sa'b)
Polish: trudny (pl), ciężki (pl)
Portuguese: difícil (pt)
Punjabi: ਕਠਿਨ (kaṭhin)
Quechua: sasa
Romanian: greu (ro), dificil (ro), anevoios (ro), complicat (ro)
Russian: тру́дный (ru) m (trúdnyj), тяжёлый (ru) (tjažólyj), тя́жкий (ru) (tjážkij), сло́жный (ru) (slóžnyj)
Sami:
Northern Sami: váttis
Samoan: faigatā
Sanskrit: कठिन (sa) (kaṭhina)
Scottish Gaelic: doirbh, mì-fhurasda, cruaidh, trom, duilich
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: тежак

Latin: težak (sh)
Sinhalese: අමාරු (amāru)
Slovak: obtiažny, ťažký
Slovene: težek (sl)
Sorbian:
Upper Sorbian: ćežki
Spanish: difícil (es), dificultoso (es)
Swedish: svår (sv)
Tagalog: mahirap
Tahitian: fifi
Tajik: мушкил (tg) (muškil), душвор (dušvor), сахт (tg) (saxt)
Tamil: கடினமான (ta) (kaṭiṉamāṉa)
Tatar: кыен (qıyın), авыр (tt) (awır)
Tày: cáo quán
Telugu: కఠినమైన (te) (kaṭhinamaina), కష్టమైన (te) (kaṣṭamaina)
Tetum: susar
Thai: ยาก (th) (yâak), ลำบาก (th) (lam-bàak)
Tibetan: ཁག་པོ (khag po), དཀའ་ལས་ཁག་པོ (dka' las khag po), དཀའ་མོ (dka' mo), དཀའ་ངལ་ཅན (dka' ngal can)
Tocharian B: waimene, āmāskai
Tokelauan: fagatā
Tongan: faingataʻa
Turkish: zor (tr), güç (tr), müşkül (tr), çetin (tr), kıyın (tr), düşvar, ağır (tr)
Ottoman Turkish: دشوار (düşvâr)
Turkmen: çatak, çetin, kyn, müçgil
Ukrainian: важки́й (uk) (važkýj), трудни́й (trudnýj)
Urdu: مشکل (muśkil), دشوار (duśvār), کٹھن (kaṭhin)
Uyghur: قىيىن (qiyin), مۈشكۈل (müshkül)
Uzbek: qiyin (uz), mushkul (uz), murakkab (uz)
Vietnamese: khó (vi), khó khăn (vi)
Volapük: fikulik (vo)
Walloon: please add this translation if you can
Welsh: anodd (cy), caled (cy)
Yiddish: שווער (shver), האַרב (harb)
Yoruba: le
Zhuang: please add this translation if you can

hard to manage (said of a person, horse, etc.)

Dutch: moeilijk (nl)
German: schwierig (de)
Greek:
Ancient Greek: χαλεπός (khalepós)
Icelandic: erfiður (is)
Irish: ciotach
Kabuverdianu: rabés
Latin: difficilis (la)
Portuguese: difícil (pt) m or f

Verb

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

(obsolete, transitive) To make difficult, hinder; to impede; to perplex.
- August 9 1678, William Temple, letter to Joseph Williamson
  their Excellencies having desisted from their pretensions , which had difficulted the peace