What does difficulty mean?
Definitions for difficulty
ˈdɪf ɪˌkʌl ti, -kəl tidif·fi·cul·ty
Here are all the possible meanings and translations of the word difficulty.
Princeton's WordNet
trouble, difficultynoun
an effort that is inconvenient
"I went to a lot of trouble"; "he won without any trouble"; "had difficulty walking"; "finished the test only with great difficulty"
difficultynoun
a factor causing trouble in achieving a positive result or tending to produce a negative result
"serious difficulties were encountered in obtaining a pure reagent"
difficultynoun
a condition or state of affairs almost beyond one's ability to deal with and requiring great effort to bear or overcome
"grappling with financial difficulties"
difficulty, difficultnessnoun
the quality of being difficult
"they agreed about the difficulty of the climb"
Wiktionary
difficultynoun
The state of being difficult, or hard to do.
difficultynoun
An obstacle that hinders achievement of a goal.
We faced a difficulty.
Etymology: From difficultee, from difficulté, from difficultas, from difficul, older form of difficilis, from dis- + facilis; see difficile and difficult.
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
Difficultynoun
Etymology: from difficult; difficultè, French.
The religion which, by this covenant, we engage ourselves to observe, is a work of labour and difficulty; a service that requires our greatest care and attention to the discharge of it. John Rogers, Serm. 13.
They mistake difficulties for impossibilities: a pernicious mistake certainly; and the more pernicious, for that men are seldom convinced of it, ’till their convictions do them no good. Robert South, Sermons.
Thus, by degrees, he rose to Jove’s imperial seat:
Thus difficulties prove a soul legitimately great. Dryden.They lie at present under some difficulties, by reason of the emperor’s displeasure, who has forbidden the importation of their manufactures. Joseph Addison, on Italy.
Men should consider, that raising difficulties concerning the mysteries in religion, cannot make them more wise, learned, or virtuous. Jonathan Swift.
Webster Dictionary
Difficultynoun
the state of being difficult, or hard to do; hardness; arduousness; -- opposed to easiness or facility; as, the difficulty of a task or enterprise; a work of difficulty
Difficultynoun
something difficult; a thing hard to do or to understand; that which occasions labor or perplexity, and requires skill and perseverance to overcome, solve, or achieve; a hard enterprise; an obstacle; an impediment; as, the difficulties of a science; difficulties in theology
Difficultynoun
a controversy; a falling out; a disagreement; an objection; a cavil
Difficultynoun
embarrassment of affairs, especially financial affairs; -- usually in the plural; as, to be in difficulties
Dictionary of Nautical Terms
difficulty
A word unknown to true salts.
Matched Categories
British National Corpus
Spoken Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'difficulty' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #1652
Written Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'difficulty' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1772
Nouns Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'difficulty' in Nouns Frequency: #323
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of difficulty in Chaldean Numerology is: 3
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of difficulty in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7
Examples of difficulty in a Sentence
If you’re exercising and you have symptoms of chest discomfort, not just shortness of breath, but real difficulty getting air in, stop. If you don’t recover quickly and it happens again, go see your doctor.
The Great Wall is a vast heritage site -- over 20,000 kilometers -- hence increasing the difficulty in preservation and restoration, reliance on a very small amount of manpower by the local heritage departments is not enough to guard and protect the site.
Last night, the Maldives foreign minister contacted us saying they were facing a grave emergency, for the next seven to eight days they are going to face extreme difficulty with water so they requested all assistance.
Anne Frank, from The Diary of a Young Girl, January 5, 1944:
I go into ecstasies every time I see the naked figure of a woman, such as Venus, for example. It strikes me as so wonderful and exquisite that I have difficulty in stopping the tears rolling down my cheeks.
The issue with hospitalization is a little bit more puzzling, because although the hospitalizations are going up, it is very clear their use of ICU beds has not increased, so are the numbers of hospitalizations a real reflection of Covid cases, or is there a difficulty deciphering between people coming into the hospital with Covid or because of Covid ?
Popularity rank by frequency of use
Translations for difficulty
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- صعوبةArabic
- препятствие, мъчнотия, затруднение, трудност, пречкаBulgarian
- dificultatCatalan, Valencian
- obtížnost, potíž, obtížCzech
- besvær, vanskelighed, sværhedDanish
- SchwierigkeitGerman
- malfacilecoEsperanto
- dificultadSpanish
- vaikeus, hankaluusFinnish
- difficultéFrench
- docaireachd, duilgheadas, cruadal, staing, cruas, teanntachd, èiginn, spàirnScottish Gaelic
- dificultadeGalician
- קושיHebrew
- कठिनाई, मुसीबत, बाधाHindi
- difikilteHaitian Creole
- nehézségHungarian
- difficoltàItalian
- 障害, 難しさ, 困難Japanese
- 어려움Korean
- زهحمهتیKurdish
- moeilijkheid, hindernisDutch
- ił nanitłʼahNavajo, Navaho
- trudnośćPolish
- dificuldadePortuguese
- obstacol, dificultate, piedicăRomanian
- сложность, трудность, затруднениеRussian
- svårighet, besvärSwedish
- కష్టంTelugu
- zorlukTurkish
- مشکل, کٹھنائیUrdu
Get even more translations for difficulty »
Translation
Find a translation for the difficulty definition in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Word of the Day
Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?
Citation
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"difficulty." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 29 Jan. 2023. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/difficulty>.
Discuss these difficulty definitions with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In