difficulty
/ˈdɪfɪkəlti/
difficulty noun: the state of being difficult, or hard to do.
Noun
difficulty (countable and uncountable, plural difficulties)
- The state of being difficult, or hard to do.
- My mom is old and has a lot of difficulty (in) remembering all her grandchildren's names.
- An obstacle that hinders achievement of a goal.
- We faced a difficulty in trying to book a flight so late.
- The difficulties of photoheliography consist principally in the rapidity with which the sun's image acts upon the sensitive film.1860, Photographic news for amateur photographers, volumes 3-4, page 113
- Synonyms:
- trouble
- Physical danger from the environment, especially with risk of drowning
- 2012 August 2, "Children rescued after getting into difficulties in Donegal" BBC Online
- The three teenagers, a girl and two boys, were playing by the river when it is believed they got into difficulty.2016 February 24, Catherine Shanahan, “Boy, 13, drowns after getting into difficulty in river”, in Irish Examiner
- An objection.
- That which cannot be easily understood or believed.
- An awkward situation or quarrel.
difficulty meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
difficulty in Hindi
- state of being difficult
- कठिनाई kaṭhināī, मुसीबत musībat, दिक़्क़त diqqat, दिक्कत dikkat
- obstacle
- बाधा bādhā, विषमता viṣamtā
difficulty in Tamil
- கடினம், சங்கடம், கஷ்டம், இக்கட்டு, சிக்கல், சிரமம்
difficulty in Marathi
- difficulty, troublesome matter
- लफडे laphḍe
difficulty in Urdu
- state of being difficult
- مشکل muśkil, کٹھنائی kaṭhināī
More languagesFewer languages
- difficulty in Bengali
- কষ্ট kośṭo, প্যাঁচ pễc, পেঁচ pẽc
- difficulty in Telugu
- కష్టం kaṣṭaṁ
- difficulty in Malayalam
- ബുദ്ധിമുട്ട് buddhimuṭṭŭ, കഷ്ടപ്പാട് kaṣṭappāṭŭ
- difficulty in Kannada
- ತೊಂದರೆ tondare, ಕಟ್ಟ kaṭṭa, ಹೈರಾಣ hairāṇa
- difficulty in Punjabi
- اوکھا aukhā, ਉਖਿਆਈ ukhiāī, ਔਖ aukha, ویلا velā
- difficulty in Gujarati
- મુશ્કેલી muśkelī, દ્વિધા dvidhā
- difficulty in Sanskrit
- त्यजस् tyajas
- difficulty in Sinhala
- අමාරුව amāruwa
- difficulty in Nepali
- कठिनाई, कठिनाइ
- difficulty in Arabic
- صُعُوبَة ṣuʕūba
- difficulty in Indonesian
- kesukaran
Examples of difficulty in a sentence
- The two-hour debate was briefly stalled by a technical difficulty with the moderators’ microphones.2019 June 27, Lauren Gambino, “Democratic 2020 candidates clash on healthcare, immigration and economy in first debate”, in The Guardian:
- Members of the public had called 999 as they were concerned the kayaker was in difficulty around the headland race due to very strong spring tides and choppy seas with the kayaker making no headway.2016 March 14, “Kayaker rescued after getting into difficulty”, in Bournemouth Echo:
Synonyms of difficulty
Forms of difficulty
| plural | difficulties |
|---|
Origin of difficulty
From Middle English difficulte, from Middle French and Anglo-Norman difficulte and their etymon Latin difficultas, from difficul, older form of difficilis (“hard to do, difficult”), from dis- + facilis (“easy”); see difficile and difficult. Equivalent to dis- + facile + -ty. Also analysable as difficult + -y, though the adjective is historically a backformation from the noun.
Words formed from difficulty
- counterdifficulty
- difficulty level
- in difficulty
- learning difficulty
- personality difficulty
- technical difficulty
- with difficulty
- with great difficulty
Phrases with difficulty
Questions about difficulty
- What does difficulty mean?
- Difficulty means the state of being difficult, or hard to do.
- What is difficulty in Hindi?
- Difficulty in Hindi is कठिनाई (kaṭhināī), मुसीबत (musībat), दिक़्क़त (diqqat). See Difficulty meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use difficulty in a sentence?
- The two-hour debate was briefly stalled by a technical difficulty with the moderators’ microphones.
- What part of speech is difficulty?
- Difficulty is a noun.
- How do you pronounce difficulty?
- Difficulty is pronounced /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/.
- What is the plural of difficulty?
- The plural of difficulty is difficulties.
Words near difficulty in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: difficulty (page history and authors); difficulty (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); लफडे (Marathi) (page history and authors); কষ্ট (Bengali) (page history and authors); ಕಟ್ಟ (Kannada) (page history and authors); اوکھا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); દ્વિધા (Gujarati) (page history and authors); අමාරුව (Sinhala) (page history and authors); difficulty (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-difficulty.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-difficulty.wav.
Cite this entry: “difficulty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/difficulty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.