HARD

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

Irregular inflected forms: harder , hardest

I. (adjective)

Comparative and superlative

Comparative: harder

Superlative: hardest

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure

Example:

why is it so hard for you to keep a secret?

Synonyms:

difficult; hard

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

trying (hard to endure)

troublesome (causing difficulty or annoyance)

thorny (bristling with perplexities)

tall (impressively difficult)

serious (requiring effort or concentration; complex and not easy to answer or solve)

rugged; tough (very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution)

rocky; rough (full of hardship or trials)

nasty; tight (exasperatingly difficult to handle or circumvent)

herculean (extremely difficult; requiring the strength of a Hercules)

hard-fought (requiring great effort)

fractious (unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be troublesome)

delicate; ticklish; touchy (difficult to handle; requiring great tact)

catchy; tricky (having concealed difficulty)

baffling; elusive; knotty; problematic; problematical; tough (making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe)

awkward; embarrassing; sticky; unenviable (hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment)

arduous (difficult to accomplish; demanding considerable mental effort and skill)

ambitious; challenging (requiring full use of your abilities or resources)

vexed (causing difficulty in finding an answer or solution; much disputed)

Also:

effortful (requiring great physical effort)

demanding (requiring more than usually expected or thought due; especially great patience and effort and skill)

hard (dispassionate)

Attribute:

difficultness; difficulty (the quality of being difficult)

Derivation:

hardness (the quality of being difficult to do)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort

Example:

set a punishing pace

Synonyms:

arduous; backbreaking; grueling; gruelling; hard; heavy; laborious; operose; punishing; toilsome

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

effortful (requiring great physical effort)

Derivation:

hardness (the quality of being difficult to do)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Dried out

Example:

hard dry rolls left over from the day before

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

stale (lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Unfortunate or hard to bear

Example:

a tough break

Synonyms:

hard; tough

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)

Derivation:

hardness (excessive sternness)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Resisting weight or pressure

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

unyielding (resistant to physical force or pressure)

adamantine (having the hardness of a diamond)

al dente (of pasta cooked so as to be firm when eaten)

corneous; hornlike; horny (made of horn (or of a substance resembling horn))

erect; tumid (of sexual organs; stiff and rigid)

firm; solid (not soft or yielding to pressure)

granitelike; granitic; rocklike; stony (hard as granite)

hardened; set (converted to solid form (as concrete))

woody (made hard like wood as the result of the deposition of lignin in the cell walls)

petrous; stonelike ((of bone especially the temporal bone) resembling stone in hardness)

semihard (somewhat hard)

steely (resembling steel in hardness)

Attribute:

hardness (the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale)

Antonym:

soft (yielding readily to pressure or weight)

Derivation:

hardness (the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Dispassionate

Example:

a hard bargainer

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

calculating; calculative; conniving; scheming; shrewd (acting with a specific goal)

case-hardened; hard-boiled; hardened (used of persons; emotionally hardened)

steely (resembling steel as in hardness)

Also:

difficult; hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)

merciless; unmerciful (having or showing no mercy)

insensitive (deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive)

tough (not given to gentleness or sentimentality)

Antonym:

soft (compassionate and kind; conciliatory)

Derivation:

hardness (devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness)

Sense 7

Meaning:

(of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward or touching the velum

Example:

Russian distinguished between hard consonants and palatalized or soft consonants

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

velar (produced with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate (as 'k' in 'cat' and 'g' in 'gun' and 'ng' in 'sing'))

Antonym:

Sense 1

Meaning:

With effort or force or vigor

Example:

slammed the door hard

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

hard (characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort)

Sense 2

Meaning:

To the full extent possible; all the way

Example:

swung the wheel hard left

Classified under:

Adverbs

Sense 3

Meaning:

Slowly and with difficulty

Example:

he was so dizzy he could hardly stand up straight

Synonyms:

hard; hardly

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Causing great damage or hardship

Example:

she was severely affected by the bank's failure

Synonyms:

hard; severely

Classified under:

Adverbs

Sense 5

Meaning:

With firmness

Example:

held hard to the railing

Synonyms:

firmly; hard

Classified under:

Adverbs

Sense 6

Meaning:

Earnestly or intently

Example:

stared hard at the accused

Classified under:

Adverbs

Sense 7

Meaning:

With pain or distress or bitterness

Example:

he took the rejection very hard

Classified under:

Adverbs

Sense 8

Meaning:

Very near or close in space or time

Example:

a strike followed hard upon the plant's opening

Classified under:

Adverbs

Sense 9

Meaning:

Into a solid condition

Example:

concrete that sets hard within a few hours

Classified under:

Adverbs

Pertainym:

hardened (converted to solid form (as concrete))

Sense 10

Meaning:

Indulging excessively

Example:

he drank heavily

Synonyms:

hard; heavily; intemperately

Classified under:

Adverbs

Credits

Context examples:

The short, hard coat may be any color.

(American Foxhound, NCI Thesaurus)

An intense fear of being in open places or in situations where it may be hard to escape, or where help may not be available.

(Agoraphobia, NCI Dictionary)

And it would have gone hard with him had not Collie appeared on the scene.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

This makes it hard for your health care provider to know if you really have one of these diseases, and if so, which one.

(Autoimmune Diseases, NIH)

Is it hard for your child to sit still?

(Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)

Stable angina is the most common type. It happens when the heart is working harder than usual.

(Angina, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

It can make it hard for you to read, write, and say what you mean to say.

(Aphasia, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

It rained hard this afternoon, as you know, and my patients were the only people who called.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Tooth enamel is the hardest material present in mammals.

(‘Game-changing’ research could solve evolution mysteries, University of Cambridge)

"It's really hard to get things to mix when using a lab-on-a-chip," said Remmi Danae Baker of Penn State.

(Tiny swimming 'doughnuts' deliver the biomedical goods, National Science Foundation)

© 1991-2023 The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin | Titi Tudorancea^® is a Registered Trademark | Terms of use and privacy policy
Contact