difficulty

noun dif·fi·cul·ty \ -(ˌ)kəl-tē \

|Updated on: 9 Jul 2018

Examples: difficulty in a Sentence

Definition of difficulty

plural 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

See difficulty defined for English-language learners

See difficulty defined for kids

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

These measurement difficulties may help explain some of the oddities that harsher critics delight in pointing out.

— The Economist, "China’s statistics are bad. Many criticisms of them are worse," 7 July 2018
Scheduling difficulties were exacerbated by budget cuts, and the Giants had a game scheduled for July 5, which would have significantly increased cleanup costs.

— bill van niekerken, SFChronicle.com, "Six decades of SF Fourth of July photos, from fireworks to fog-outs," 4 July 2018
Two months before the kids died, Velasquez’s family told authorities the young mom was having difficulties taking care of them, PEOPLE learned in March.

— greg hanlon, PEOPLE.com, "Ariz. Baby and Toddler Found Dead in Car Seats Perished from Heat, Autopsies Say — as Mom Remains Jailed," 4 July 2018
Frankenmuth Aerial Park The Aerial Park tour has 21 zip lines, six different trails, five difficulty levels and nearly 100 challenges.

— caroline blackmon, Detroit Free Press, "6 of the best zip line courses in Michigan," 3 July 2018
While the wave machine did suffer from some technical difficulties and halted competition for about 90 minutes, the live broadcast, a first of its kind, went off without hitch on CBS.

— hemal jhaveri, For The Win, "How Kelly Slater took surfing out of the ocean and onto dry land," 3 July 2018
Its symptoms can include tingling sensations, weakness in the legs, difficulty speaking and severe pain.

— kelsey mo, azcentral, "UA student recounts sudden paralysis during trip to Spain," 3 July 2018
These past 18 months have been fraught with personal difficulties and losses that have made us re-examine our own lives.

— carol deptolla, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Juniper 61 in Tosa will stay open into August, before new restaurant comes in," 3 July 2018
But Joanna had been right in her suspicions that her child could not survive the difficulties and dangers of medieval travel, and Charles Martel died soon after his arrival in Hungary.

— anne thériault, Longreads, "Queens of Infamy: Joanna of Naples," 3 July 2018

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, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French difficulté, borrowed from Latin difficultāt-, difficultās, from difficilis "hard to do, troublesome, intractable" (from dif-, probably assimilated form of dis- dis- + facilis "easy, accommodating") + -tāt-, -tās -ty — more at facile

Note: Latin difficultās presumably goes back to *dis-fakli-tāts and follows the same path as the base word, from *faklitāts to attested facultās (see faculty), with regular vowel weakening in a non-initial syllable. The word difficilis is derivationally peculiar, as the prefix dis- is regularly applied only to verbs and is not primarily privative—the expected negative counterpart to facilis should have been *infacilis. It has been hypothesized that dis- in this case is a permutation of *dus-, corresponding to Greek dys- "bad, ill" (see dys-; *dus- is otherwise unattested in Latin), or that difficilis is modeled on dissimilis "unlike" (see dissimilar; the adjective similis "like" takes a range of ordinarily verbal prefixes, perhaps following Greek equivalents). Neither solution is entirely satisfactory.

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First Known Use: 14th century

in the meaning defined at sense 1

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difficulty Synonyms

DIFFICULTY Defined for English Language Learners

difficulty

noun

Definition of difficulty for English Language Learners

: the quality of something that makes it hard to do : the difficult nature of something
: something that is not easy to do or to deal with : a difficult situation
: a disagreement in opinion