# difficult
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English difficult (ca. 1400), a back-formation from difficultee (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”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /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.
    However, the difficult weather conditions will ensure Yunnan has plenty of freshwater.
** 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: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:“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

* difficultate
* difficultly
* difficultness
* difficult nut to crack
* difficult pill to swallow
* superdifficult
* trifficult
* undifficult

#### Translations

Afrikaans: moeilik
Albanian: i vështirë (sq)
Amharic: አስቸጋሪ (ʾäsčägari)
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 (qıyın), ауыр (awır)
Basque: nekez (eu), zail
Belarusian: ця́жкі (be) (cjážki), тру́дны (trúdny)
Bengali: কঠিন (bn) (koṭhin)
Bikol Central:
Bikol Legazpi: dipisil (bcl)
Bikol Naga: masakit
Breton: diaes (br)
Brunei Malay: payah
Bulgarian: тру́ден (bg) (trúden), мъ́чен (bg) (mǎ́čen), те́жък (bg) (téžǎk)
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 (naan$^4$), 困難 / 困难 (kwan$^3$ naan$^4$)
Mandarin: 難 / 难 (zh) (nán), 困難 / 困难 (zh) (kùnnán), 艱難 / 艰难 (zh) (jiānnán)
Wu: 難 / 难
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)
Faroese: torførur
Finnish: vaikea (fi), hankala (fi)
French: difficile (fr)
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: 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)
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) (qiyn), ауыр (auyr)
Khiamniungan Naga: tshīk
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)
Maltese: diffiċli (mt)
Manx: doillee, creoi, trome, mooar, neuaashagh
Maori: 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)
Navajo: nantłʼah
Northern Sami: váttis
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
Ottoman Turkish: دشوار (düşvâr)
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)
Samoan: faigatā
Sanskrit: कठिन (sa) (kaṭhina)
Scottish Gaelic: doirbh, mì-fhurasda, cruaidh, trom, duilich
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: тежак
Roman: težak (sh)
Sinhalese: අමාරු (amāru)
Slovak: obtiažny, ťažký
Slovene: težek (sl)
Sorbian:
Upper Sorbian: ćežki
Spanish: difícil (es), tranca (es)
Swedish: svår (sv)
Tagalog: mahirap
Tahitian: fifi
Tajik: мушкил (tg) (muškil), душвор (dušvor), сахт (tg) (saxt)
Tamil: கடினமான (ta) (kaṭiṉamāṉa)
Tatar: кыен (qıyen), авыр (tt) (awır)
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
Tongan: faingataʻa
Turkish: zor (tr), güç (tr), müşkül (tr), çetin (tr), kıyın (tr), düşvar, ağır (tr)
Turkmen: çatak, çetin, kyn, müçgil
Tày: cáo quán
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)
West Frisian: swier (fy)
White Hmong: please add this translation if you can
Yiddish: שווער (shver), האַרב (harb)
Yoruba: le
Zhuang: please add this translation if you can :

### Verb

difficult (third-person singular simple present difficults, present participle difficulting, simple past and past participle difficulted)
* (obsolete, transitive) To make difficult; 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

#### Translations
### Further reading

* “difficult”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “difficult”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.