Word.ws English Dictionary

hard-won

UK/hɑːd ˈwʌn//hɑɹd ˈwʌn/

hard-won adjective: having been obtained with effort, despite difficulty and hardship.

Adjective

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

  1. Having been obtained with effort, despite difficulty and hardship.
    • The Earle of London yéeldes his Charge and Cittie to the Foe, / Through which diſloyall preſedent did other Citties ſoe: / And then with hard-won Tribute hence the Conquerour did goe.1586, William Warner, “The Third Booke. Chapter XVII.”, in Albions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island: […], London: […] George Robinson [and R. Ward] for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 71
    • [S]hould any hostile force approach our shores, or land upon them, they will find a people—not secure, and quiet, and at ease—but resolved and ready to defend our Queen and our country, our hard-won wealth, and our harder-won freedom, our wives and our daughters, our old men and our little...1861, Christopher Eades, “Section V. Warnings and Persuasives.”, in England and France. […] Prize Essay, 2nd edition, Dublin: McGlashan & Gill, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., […], →OCLC, page...
    Synonyms:
    hard-earned

hard-won meaning in Tamil

hard-won in Tamil

அரிதிற் பெற்ற

Examples of hard-won in a sentence

  • Of course, with those decades of life come many hard-won lessons, and at this stage of the game, [Paul] McCartney's not above preaching a bit.2020 November 9, Gwen Ihnat, “With McCartney III, Paul McCartney Offers Lessons from a Legendary Life”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the...
  • The League of Nations, meanwhile, suffered a credibility gap as the United States never joined the organisation that its President argued was essential for preserving the hard-won peace.2021 September 22, Stephen Roberts, “The Writings on the Wall …”, in Rail, number 940, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN...

Synonyms of hard-won

Forms of hard-won

comparativeharder-won
comparativemore hard-won
superlativehardest-won
superlativemost hard-won
alternative formhardwon

Origin of hard-won

From hard (“with difficulty; with much effort”, adverb) + won (“obtained”, verb).

Words that rhyme with hard-won

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hard-won

What does hard-won mean?
Hard-won means having been obtained with effort, despite difficulty and hardship.
What is hard-won in Tamil?
Hard-won in Tamil is அரிதிற் பெற்ற. See Hard-won meaning in Tamil.
How do you use hard-won in a sentence?
Of course, with those decades of life come many hard-won lessons, and at this stage of the game, [Paul] McCartney's not above preaching a bit.
What part of speech is hard-won?
Hard-won is an adjective.
How do you pronounce hard-won?
Hard-won is pronounced /hɑːd ˈwʌn/ (UK).

Words near hard-won in the dictionary

  1. hard-wearing
  2. hard-wire
  3. hard-wired
  4. hard-wires
  5. hard-wiring
  6. hard-won
  7. hard-work
  8. hard-working
  9. Harda
  10. Hardacre
  11. Hardacres

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hard-won (page history and authors); hard-won (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-hard-won.oga.

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