Word.ws English Dictionary

challenging

/ˈt͡ʃæl.ɪn.d͡ʒɪŋ/

challenging is the present participle and gerund of challenge.

Meaning of challenge

Verb

challenge (third-person singular simple present challenges, present participle challenging, simple past and past participle challenged)

  1. (transitive) To invite (someone) to take part in a competition.
    • We challenged the boys next door to a game of football.
  2. (transitive) To dare (someone).
    • [...] For I challenge any Man to make any pretence to Power by Right of Fatherhood, either intelligible or poſſible in any one, otherwiſe, then either as Adams heir, or as Progenitor over his own deſcendants, naturally ſprung from him.1689 December (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Who Heir?”, in Two Treatises of Government: […], London: […] Awnsham Churchill, […], →OCLC, book I, paragraph 149, page 194
  3. (transitive) To dispute (something); to contest.
    • to challenge the accuracy of a statement or of a quotation
    Synonyms:
    call
  4. To call something into question or dispute.
    • New information challenged old hypotheses.
  5. (transitive) To make a formal objection to a juror.
  6. (transitive) To be difficult or challenging for.
    • Before moving onto the content of Hobson-Jobson, an explication of the publication history is necessary since this has clearly challenged many commentators.2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 487

See all 23 meanings of challenge

Adjective

challenging (comparative more challenging, superlative most challenging)

  1. Difficult, hard to do.

Noun

challenging (plural challengings)

  1. The act of making a challenge.
    • There are always sincere challengings of the findings, always the objections (sincere in another sense) of those whose interests seem threatened.1918, Estcourt Rowland Metzner, The conflict of tax laws, page 151

Antonyms of challenging

Forms of challenging

Adjective
comparativemore challenging
superlativemost challenging
Noun
pluralchallengings

Origin of challenging

From Middle English chalengynge; equivalent to challenge + -ing.

Words formed from challenging

Questions about challenging

What does challenging mean?
Challenging means difficult, hard to do.
What is challenging the present participle and gerund of?
Challenging is the present participle and gerund of challenge.
What part of speech is challenging?
Challenging can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce challenging?
Challenging is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃæl.ɪn.d͡ʒɪŋ/.

Words near challenging in the dictionary

  1. Challenger Deep
  2. challengers
  3. challenges
  4. challengest
  5. challengeth
  6. challenging
  7. challengingly
  8. challengingness
  9. challengings
  10. challis
  11. challises

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: challenging (page history and authors); challenge (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-challenging.wav.

Cite this entry: “challenging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/challenging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.