Word.ws English Dictionary

hard

/hɑːd//hɑɹd/

hard adjective: solid and firm.

Adjective (1)

hard (comparative harder or more hard, superlative hardest or most hard)

  1. Solid and firm.
    • Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5
    1. Resistant to pressure; difficult to break, cut, or penetrate.
      • This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it.
    2. Strong.
    3. Containing alcohol.
      • hard cider, hard lemonade, hard seltzer, hard soda
      • Stunned, she deleted his number and went home. Then she cracked a hard seltzer, opened her phone’s camera and filmed a TikTok video recounting the evening […].2023 March 1, Rachel Ellison, “Bad Dates Turn Out to Be Excellent on TikTok”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 02 Mar 2023
    4. Very acidic or tannic.
      • While most 1974s remain hard, tannic, hollow wines lacking ripeness, flesh, and character, a number of the Graves estates did produce surprisingly spicy, interesting wines.2002, Robert M. Parker (Jr.), Pierre-Antoine Rovani, Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide (page 175)
    5. High in dissolved chemical salts, especially those of calcium.
    6. Having the capability of being a permanent magnet by being a material with high magnetic coercivity (compare soft).
    7. Having a high energy (high frequency; short wavelength).
      • hard X-rays
    8. Made up of parallel rays, producing clearly defined shadows.
  2. (personal or social) Difficult or requiring a lot of effort to do, understand, experience, or deal with.
    • a hard problem; a hard question; a hard topic
    • Ray found it hard to imagine having accumulated so many mannerisms before the dawn of sex, of the sexual need to please, of the staginess sex encourages or the tightly capped wells of poisoned sexual desire the disappointed must stand guard over.1988, Edmund White, An Oracle
  3. (personal or social) Demanding a lot of effort to endure.
    • a hard life
    Antonyms:
    bearable, easy
  4. (personal or social) Severe, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.
    • a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character
    • The senator asked the party chief to put the hard word on his potential rivals.
  5. (dated, personal or social) Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
    • The stag was too hard for the horse.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
    • a power which will be always too hard for them1716 March 22 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 24. Sunday, March 12. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob...
  6. (personal or social) Hardened; having unusually strong defences.
    • a hard site
  7. (slang, personal or social) Tough, muscular, badass.
    • He thinks he's well hard.
    • I was a hard niggah, but not twisted enough to eat and socialize with my peeps knowing I was planning on robbing them before the night was over.2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 108
  8. (slang, personal or social) Excellent, impressive.
    • This song goes hard.
    • This guy always has the hardest fits.
  9. Unquestionable; unequivocal.
    • hard evidence; a hard requirement
    • […]for, unless supported by hard facts, abusive words would recoil on him who used them, and would pass like empty air over the head of an innocent man.1796, The History of the Trial of Warren Hastings
  10. Having a comparatively larger or a ninety-degree angle.
    • At the intersection, there are two roads going to the left. Take the hard left.
  11. (slang, vulgar) Sexually aroused; having an erect penis.
    • I got so hard watching two hot girls wrestle each other on the beach.
    Antonyms:
    soft, flaccid
  12. Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.
Show 11 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (not comparable) Plosive.
    • There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre".
    Antonyms:
    soft
  2. (not comparable) Unvoiced.
    • Hard k, t, s, ch, as distinguished from soft, g, d, z, j.
    Antonyms:
    soft
  3. (Slavic phonology) Velarized or plain, rather than palatalized.
    • The letter ж (ž) in Russian is always hard.
  4. Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
  5. Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in colour or shading.
  6. (not comparable) In a physical form, not digital.
    • a soft or hard copy; a digital or hard archive
  7. (not comparable) Using a manual or physical process, not by means of a software command.
    • a hard reboot or reset
  8. Far, extreme.
    • hard right, hard left
  9. Not having had the natural gum boiled off.
  10. Of a market: having more demand than supply; being a seller's market.
    • Undercapitalized insurers cannot retain more catastrophe risks when the market is hard […]2009, J. David Cummins, Olivier Mahul, Catastrophe Risk Financing in Developing Countries, page 7
    Antonyms:
    soft
  11. Hardcore.

Adverb

hard (comparative harder, superlative hardest)

  1. With much force or effort.
    • He hit the puck hard up the ice.
    • They worked hard all week.
  2. With difficulty.
    • His degree was hard earned.
  3. (obsolete) So as to raise difficulties.
    • The question is hard set.1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC
  4. Compactly.
    • The lake had finally frozen hard.
  5. (archaic) Near, close.
    • At the intersection, bear hard left.
    • The King your brother is now hard at hand, / Meete with the foole, and rid your royall ſhoulders / Of ſuch a burden, as outweighs the ſands / And all the craggie rockes of Caſpea.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...

Noun

hard (countable and uncountable, plural hards)

  1. (countable) A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.
    • The Monastery's ironworks at Sowley were renowned for centuries but declined with the passing of the 'wooden walls' at Buckler's Hard — a great number of these ships having been built with timber from the Beaulieu Woods […]1952, Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu Baron Montagu, Beaulieu, the Abbey, Palace House, and Buckler's Hard, page 36
    • He brought the dinghy up to the careening hard. Two or three boats lay on their sides on the sloping roadway, but there was no sign of life.1967, John Christopher, The White Mountains
  2. (countable) A tyre whose compound is softer than superhards, and harder than mediums.
  3. (slang, uncountable) Crack cocaine.
  4. (slang, uncountable) Hard labor.
    • The prisoners were sentenced to three years' hard.

Verb

hard (third-person singular simple present hards, present participle harding, simple past and past participle harded)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To make hard, harden.
    • He knows vain men: he sees their harts that hard them In Guiles and Wiles, and will not hee regard them?1641, original 1618, Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas, Josuah Sylvester, Du Bartas His Diuine Weekes and Workes

Adjective (2) capitalized: HARD

HARD (not comparable)

  1. (mnemonic) An acronym for remembering desirable characteristics for goal-setting: heartfelt, animated, required, difficult.
    • Unlike achievable and realistic goals that leave you stuck in the status-quo, HARD Goals light up the brain and encourage great performance.2017 June 11, Mark Murphy, “HARD Goals, Not SMART Goals, Are The Key To Career Development”, in Forbes, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2017

Proper noun capitalized: Hard

Hard (plural Hards)

  1. A surname.

hard meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

hard in Hindi

requiring a lot of effort to do or understand
कठिन kaṭhin, मुश्किल muśkil, दूभर dūbhar
resistant to pressure
कड़ा kaṛā, कठोर kaṭhor, सख़्त saxt, सख्त sakht, पायदार pāydār
of water, high in dissolved calcium compounds
कठिन kaṭhin
demanding a lot of effort to endure
कठिन kaṭhin, कठोर kaṭhor

hard in Tamil

requiring a lot of effort to do or understand
கடினம் kaṭiṉam

hard in Marathi

hard, tough, stiff
कडक kaḍak
hard, stern
सक्त sakta
hard, firm, compact
निबर nibar
hard
जड j̈aḍ

hard in Urdu

requiring a lot of effort to do or understand
مشکل muśkil, کٹھن kaṭhin
resistant to pressure
کڑا kaṛā, سخت saxt, کٹھور kaṭhōr
More languagesFewer languages
hard in Bengali
শক্ত śokto
hard in Telugu
కఠోర kaṭhōra, కఠిన kaṭhina, గట్టి gaṭṭi
hard in Malayalam
കഠിനം kaṭhinaṁ, കഠിനമായ kaṭhinamāya, കഠിന kaṭhina, കടുത്ത kaṭutta
hard in Kannada
ಕಠಿಣ kaṭhiṇa
hard in Punjabi
ਪੱਕਾ pakkā, ਕਾਠਾ kāṭhā, ਸਖ਼ਤ saxt, ਕਰਾਰਾ karārā
hard in Gujarati
કઠિન kaṭhin, સખત sakhat, કડક kaḍak
hard in Sanskrit
सार sāra, वज्र vájra, खर khara, दारुण
hard in Sinhala
දැඩි dæḍi
hard in Assamese
টান tan
hard in Nepali
कडा
hard in Pashto
ګران grân, کلک klak, زيږ ziģ, سخت saxt
hard in Tagalog
mahirap, matigas, matapang, malala
hard in Arabic
صَعْب ṣaʕb, صُلْب ṣulb, لَا يُدْحَضُ lā yudḥaḍu
hard in Malay
susah, keras
hard in Indonesian
sulit, sukar, susah, keras
hard in Persian
دشوار došvâr, مشکل moškel, سخت saxt, صعب sa'b
hard in Thai
ยาก yâak, แข็ง kɛ̌ng, แรง rɛɛng, กระด้าง grà-dâang
hard in Vietnamese
khó, khó khăn, cứng, rắn
hard in Myanmar
မာ ma

Examples of hard in a sentence

  • The recession hit them especially hard.
  • Think hard about your choices.
  • The couple were fucking each other hard.
  • The stone circle is small and hard to find and the search is made harder because all down the beck cars are parked on the verge and the supposedly unfrequented road up the valley very busy.1999 January 21, Alan Bennett, “What I did in 1998”, in London Review of Books, volume 21, number 2:
  • The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile.2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:
  • It’s been said that, for nonstellar teachers at least, the hardest things to teach are the things one loves most.2016 January 2, James Romm, “Beginning Greek, Again and Again”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Nov 2020:

All 40 example sentences with hard

Synonyms of hard

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

6 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of hard

Forms of hard

Adjective
comparativeharder
comparativemore hard
superlativehardest
superlativemost hard
Adverb
comparativeharder
superlativehardest
Noun
pluralhards
Verb
third-person singular presenthards
present participleharding
past participleharded
pastharded
Proper noun
pluralHards

Origin of hard

From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kort-ús, from *kret- (“strong, powerful”). Cognates Cognate with Yola hard (“hard”), West Frisian hurd (“hard”), Alemannic German hert (“hard”), Bavarian hoat (“hard”), Central Franconian haat (“hard”), Dutch hard (“hard”), German hart (“hard”), Luxembourgish haart (“hard”), Danish and Swedish hård (“hard”), Faroese and Icelandic harður (“hard”), Norwegian Bokmål hard (“hard”), Norwegian Nynorsk hard, hard’u (“hard”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus, “hard”), Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong, mighty”), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu, “power, might, ability”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu).

From Middle English harden, herden, from Old English heardian (“to become hard”) and hierdan (“to make hard”), from Proto-West Germanic *hardēn and *hardijan, from Proto-Germanic *hardijaną. Cognates Cognate with Dutch harden (“to harden”), German härten (“to harden”), Danish hærde (“to harden; to temper”), Icelandic herða (“to harden”), Norwegian Bokmål herde (“to harden; to toughen”), Norwegian Nynorsk herda (“to make hard, temper; harden”), Swedish härda (“harden, temper”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gahardjan), *𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (*hardjan, “to harden”).

* From Old English and Norman derivatives of Old French hardi (“tough, brave, hardy”). There are several Germanic variants of this origin, such as Swedish hård, Dutch hard, etc., all from Proto-Germanic *harduz. * English topographical surname for farmers living on hard ground, from hard. This also appeared as the surname Hardacre.

Words formed from hard

Phrases with hard

178 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with hard

31 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hard

What does hard mean?
Hard means solid and firm.
What is hard in Hindi?
Hard in Hindi is कठिन (kaṭhin), मुश्किल (muśkil), दूभर (dūbhar). See Hard meaning in Hindi.
How do you use hard in a sentence?
The recession hit them especially hard.
What part of speech is hard?
Hard can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce hard?
Hard is pronounced /hɑːd/ (UK).

Words near hard in the dictionary

  1. Harcourtians
  2. Harcrow
  3. Harcrows
  4. Harcum
  5. Harcums
  6. hard
  7. hard act to follow
  8. hard acts to follow
  9. hard and fast
  10. hard as a rock
  11. hard as brazil

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hard (page history and authors); HARD (page history and authors); Hard (page history and authors); कडक (Marathi) (page history and authors); കടുത്ത (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಕಠಿಣ (Kannada) (page history and authors); ਕਠੋਰ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); કઠિન (Gujarati) (page history and authors); खर (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); දැඩි (Sinhala) (page history and authors); টান (Assamese) (page history and authors); hard (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.

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

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