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# difficult

«difficult» in Mova's school dictionary: **Hard to do, understand or deal with; needing a lot of…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (difficult, more difficult, most difficult)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Hard to do, understand or deal with; needing a lot of effort or skill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#m1)

2) Full of problems or worries (a difficult time). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#m2)

3) (of a person) Not easy to please or get on with; unhelpful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

Used everywhere: difficult questions, difficult words, difficult times. In maths and exams, «the difficult part» needs more steps. In stories, a difficult character causes trouble. Phrases: «find it difficult to», «make life difficult», «difficult to say», «a difficult decision».

### examples

- This puzzle is very difficult. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#x1)
- I find it difficult to wake up early. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#x2)
- The last question was the most difficult. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#x3)
- It was a difficult time for the family. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#x4)
- The toddler is being difficult today. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#x5)
- It's difficult to say who will win. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#x6)
- Climbing the mountain was difficult but fun. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#x7)
- Its dialect renders it somewhat difficult to read. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/difficult/#x8)

### note

Comparisons use «more» and «most»: more difficult, NOT «difficulter». Opposite: easy, simple. Noun «difficulty». Synonyms: hard, tough, tricky (informal). In everyday speech «hard» is more common.

### In the corpora

- ["The terrible twos" means the difficult stage of a toddler around age two.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/14-family-and-behaviour/18/)
- ["Challenging" (jargon) means bad or very difficult.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/33-failure-and-mistakes/19/)
- ["A real character" is a polite way to call someone odd, unusual or difficult.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/22/)
- [Ratings are about content such as violence, blood, fear and bad language, not about how difficult a game is.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/401-fighting-games-at-a-friends/23/)
- [Perseverance means keeping going when things are difficult.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/35-courage-responsibility-rights-and-duties/17/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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