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# challenging

«challenging» in Mova's school dictionary: **hard, needing effort or skill (a challenging puzzle)** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (challenging; more challenging, most challenging)

### meaning for a pupil

1) hard, needing effort or skill (a challenging puzzle). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#m1)

2) (euphemism, jargon) bad, very difficult, troublesome: a «challenging child» = badly behaved; a «challenging year» = an awful one. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#m2)

3) questioning or confronting (a challenging look). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In business, school and politics people say «challenging» instead of «bad» or «awful» to sound positive and in control; teachers say «challenging behaviour» for bad behaviour. All regions.

### examples

- This is a challenging maths problem; take your time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#x1)
- The company had a challenging year (it lost a lot of money). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#x2)
- The class has some challenging behaviour (some pupils misbehave). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#x3)
- Climbing the mountain was challenging but fun. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#x4)
- He gave the teacher a challenging stare. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#x5)
- The news report called the weather «challenging»: a storm closed the roads. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#x6)
- Report: «Sam can find group work challenging.» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/#x7)

### note

Trap: in reports and news it often means «bad» or «a problem». In a puzzle book it means «hard». Notice which.

### In the corpora

- ["A challenging class" means a badly behaved class.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/16-school-reports/21/)
- ["Challenging trading conditions" means business is bad and losing money (UK).](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/23-fees-bugs-and-spin/17/)
- ["Challenging" (jargon) means bad or very difficult.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/33-failure-and-mistakes/19/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «challenging» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/challenging/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.