Definition of difficulty
difficulties
1 : the quality or state of being hard to do, deal with, or understand : the quality or state of being difficult underestimated the difficulty of the task has difficulty reading climbs stairs with difficulty
2 : controversy, disagreement unable to resolve their difficulties
3 : objection made no difficulty in granting the request
4 : something difficult : impediment encountering difficulties along the way
5 : embarrassment, trouble —usually used in plural financial difficulties
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Examples of difficulty in a Sentence
She underestimated the difficulty of saving so much money.
the many difficulties that he encountered on the road from poor orphan to head of a major corporation
Recent Examples of difficulty from the Web
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Teachers also reported that children with high lead levels more commonly had difficulty following instructions.
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Al Jazeera duly suspended its Egyptian arm, and after a temporary blackout, blamed on technical difficulties, briefly broadcast from London.
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Given the small minority population in the city, however, Poway could have difficulty trying to create one district that has a clear Latino majority, which is typically the goal of voting-rights cases.
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But Afghans’ difficulty in securing visitor visas to America began well before the Trump administration, out of concerns stemming from people who came to the country and then either sought asylum in Canada or simply skipped out on their visas.
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Johnson respected the difficulty of being a cop but had ideas about how policing could be done differently.
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Plans for floor votes have not been set by House leaders, who invariably have difficulty passing most of the nondefense spending bills without Democratic help.
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AL.com examines Auburn's schedule and ranks teams from 12 to 1 in terms of difficulty.
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This, in turn, could help end the motherhood penalty and ultimately close the gender pay gap as women would ideally have less difficulty re-entering the workforce.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'difficulty.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of difficulty
Middle English difficulte, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French difficulté, from Latin difficultas, from difficilis not easy, from dis- + facilis easy — more at facile
DIFFICULTY Defined for English Language Learners
difficulty
playDefinition of difficulty for English Language Learners
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: the quality of something that makes it hard to do : the difficult nature of something
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: something that is not easy to do or to deal with : a difficult situation
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: a disagreement in opinion
DIFFICULTY Defined for Kids
difficulty
playDefinition of difficulty for Students
difficulties
1 : the state of being hard to do the difficulty of a task
2 : great effort He solved the puzzle with difficulty.
3 : something that makes something hard to do : obstacle She overcame great difficulties to achieve success.
4 : a troublesome situation She saw a way out of the difficulty.
Learn More about difficulty
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for difficulty Spanish Central: Translation of difficulty Nglish: Translation of difficulty for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of difficulty for Arabic speakers
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