Word: hard Part of Speech: adj Etymology: From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kort-ús, from *kret- (“strong, powerful”). Cognates Cognate with Yola hard (“hard”), West Frisian hurd (“hard”), Alemannic German hert (“hard”), Bavarian hoat (“hard”), Central Franconian haat (“hard”), Dutch hard (“hard”), German hart (“hard”), Luxembourgish haart (“hard”), Danish and Swedish hård (“hard”), Faroese and Icelandic harður (“hard”), Norwegian Bokmål hard (“hard”), Norwegian Nynorsk hard, hard’u (“hard”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus, “hard”), Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong, mighty”), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu, “power, might, ability”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu). Pronunciation: /hɑːd/, /hɑɹd/ 1. Solid and firm. Example: Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain. 2. Solid and firm. Example: This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it. 3. Solid and firm. 4. Solid and firm. Example: hard cider, hard lemonade, hard seltzer, hard soda Example: Stunned, she deleted his number and went home. Then she cracked a hard seltzer, opened her phone’s camera and filmed a TikTok video recounting the evening […]. 5. Solid and firm. Example: While most 1974s remain hard, tannic, hollow wines lacking ripeness, flesh, and character, a number of the Graves estates did produce surprisingly spicy, interesting wines. 6. Solid and firm. 7. Solid and firm. 8. Solid and firm. Example: hard X-rays 9. Solid and firm. 10. Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Example: a hard problem; a hard question; a hard topic Example: Ray found it hard to imagine having accumulated so many mannerisms before the dawn of sex, of the sexual need to please, of the staginess sex encourages or the tightly capped wells of poisoned sexual desire the disappointed must stand guard over. 11. Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Example: a hard life 12. Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Example: a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character Example: The senator asked the party chief to put the hard word on his potential rivals. 13. Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Labels: dated Example: The stag was too hard for the horse. Example: a power which will be always too hard for them 14. Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Example: a hard site 15. Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Labels: slang Example: He thinks he's well hard. Example: I was a hard niggah, but not twisted enough to eat and socialize with my peeps knowing I was planning on robbing them before the night was over. 16. Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Labels: slang Example: This song goes hard. Example: This guy always has the hardest fits. 17. Unquestionable; unequivocal. Example: hard evidence; a hard requirement Example: […]for, unless supported by hard facts, abusive words would recoil on him who used them, and would pass like empty air over the head of an innocent man. 18. Having a comparatively larger or a ninety-degree angle. Example: At the intersection, there are two roads going to the left. Take the hard left. 19. Sexually aroused; having an erect penis. Labels: slang, vulgar Example: I got so hard watching two hot girls wrestle each other on the beach. 20. Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise. 21. Fortis. Labels: not-comparable Example: There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre". 22. Fortis. Labels: not-comparable Example: Hard k, t, s, ch, as distinguished from soft, g, d, z, j. 23. Velarized or plain, rather than palatalized. Example: The letter ж (ž) in Russian is always hard. 24. Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment. 25. Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment. 26. In a physical form, not digital. Labels: not-comparable Example: a soft or hard copy; a digital or hard archive 27. Using a manual or physical process, not by means of a software command. Labels: not-comparable Example: a hard reboot or reset 28. Far, extreme. Example: hard right, hard left 29. Not having had the natural gum boiled off. 30. Of a market: having more demand than supply; being a seller's market. Example: Undercapitalized insurers cannot retain more catastrophe risks when the market is hard […] 31. Hardcore.