Entry Word: difficulty

Function: noun

Meaning: 1 something that is a cause for suffering or special effort especially in the attainment of a goal <the many difficulties that he encountered on the road from poor orphan to head of a major corporation>

Synonyms adversity, asperity, hardness, hardship, rigor

Related Words discomfort, inconvenience, nuisance; affliction, trial, tribulation; knock, misfortune, mishap, tragedy; bar, catch, check, clog, crimp, embarrassment, handicap, hindrance, hitch, hurdle, impediment, interference, let, manacle, obstacle, obstruction, rub, shackle, snag, stop, trammel; block, chain, deterrent, encumbrance, fetter, inhibition; hump

Near Antonyms advantage, break, opportunity

2 something that makes a situation more complicated or difficult <there was a minor difficulty when we realized that the store had already closed> — see complication 1