difficult
adjective
dif·fi·cult
ˈdi-fi-(ˌ)kəlt 
1
: hard to do, make, or carry out : arduous
a difficult climb
2
a
: hard to deal with, manage, or overcome
a difficult child
having a difficult time coping with her death
b
: hard to understand : puzzling
difficult reading
found calculus too difficult
difficultly
adverb
Synonyms
Examples of difficult in a Sentence
We were asked lots of difficult questions.
I had to make a very difficult decision.
We'll be hiking over difficult terrain.
It's more difficult than it sounds.
I found myself in a difficult position.
Some difficult days lie ahead of us.
These changes will make life difficult for everyone involved.
Recent Examples on the Web
An at least 200-year-old celebration of French and Mediterranean cuisine, macarons are renowned as the ‘impossible dessert,’ a result of the notoriously involved and difficult baking process.
—
Chris Gallagher, USA TODAY, 20 Dec. 2024
The manual entry of damage to structures like bridges used to be very expensive and time-consuming, a complex process made even more difficult by the fact that data entry and analysis are performed by both the agency’s own staff and external companies.
—Stephanie Glenk, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024
After racking up more than $10 billion of losses over the last half-decade, 2024 was the year Disney finally started making money from its digital platforms, turning the corner in what’s been an exceedingly difficult effort to reinvent itself for the Netflix era.
—Josef Adalian, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2024
And the gold standard approach to screening for the disease is chest X-Rays, which are difficult to conduct in the rural parts of India where TB is most common.
—IEEE Spectrum, 19 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for difficult 
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Chris Gallagher, USA TODAY, 20 Dec. 2024
The manual entry of damage to structures like bridges used to be very expensive and time-consuming, a complex process made even more difficult by the fact that data entry and analysis are performed by both the agency’s own staff and external companies.
—Stephanie Glenk, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024
After racking up more than $10 billion of losses over the last half-decade, 2024 was the year Disney finally started making money from its digital platforms, turning the corner in what’s been an exceedingly difficult effort to reinvent itself for the Netflix era.
—Josef Adalian, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2024
And the gold standard approach to screening for the disease is chest X-Rays, which are difficult to conduct in the rural parts of India where TB is most common.
—IEEE Spectrum, 19 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for difficult
Dictionary Entries Near difficult
Cite this Entry
“Difficult.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/difficult. Accessed 26 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
difficult
adjective
dif·fi·cult
ˈdif-i-(ˌ)kəlt
1
: hard to do, make, or carry out
a difficult climb
2
a
: hard to deal with, manage, or overcome
a difficult child
b
: hard to understand : puzzling
difficult reading
difficultly
adverb
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