demanding

1 requiring much time, effort, or careful attention the demanding assignment kept them working all night long Synonyms arduous, burdensome, challenging, exacting, grueling (or gruelling), killing, laborious, onerous, persnickety, taxing, toilsome Related Words difficult, formidable, hard, herculean, rough, rugged, stiff, strenuous, testing, tough; oppressive, trying; rigid, rigorous, severe, stern, strict, stringent Near Antonyms easy, effortless, facile, simple, smooth Antonyms light, nondemanding, unchallenging, undemanding

2 hard to please will play before a demanding audience of music critics, who are not easily impressed Synonyms choosy (or choosey), dainty, delicate, finicky, exacting, fastidious, finical, finicking, fussbudgety, fussy, nice, old-maidish, particular, pernickety [chiefly British], persnickety, pickyRelated Words hyperfastidious, overdemanding, ultrafastidious; discerning, discriminating, selective; insightful, knowledgeable; captious, carping, caviling (or cavilling), critical, faultfinding, hypercritical, overcritical; careful, meticulous, painstaking, punctilious, scrupulous; queasy (also queazy), squeamish; peevish, petulant, prickly, touchy; niminy-piminy, prim, prissyNear Antonyms affable, breezy, carefree, devil-may-care, happy-go-lucky, lackadaisical, laid-back, low-pressure, relaxed; flexible, lax, loose; lenient, permissive; uncritical; indiscriminating, undiscriminatingAntonyms undemanding, unfastidious, unfussy

3 requiring considerable physical or mental effort the demanding task of reading and grading student compositions Synonyms arduous, Augean, backbreaking, challenging, hard, difficult, effortful, exacting, formidable, grueling (or gruelling), heavy, hellacious, herculean, killer, laborious, moiling, murderous, pick-and-shovel, rigorous, rough, rugged, severe, stiff, strenuous, sweaty, tall, testing, toilsome, tough, uphillRelated Words abstract, abstruse, complex, complicated, elusive, hairy, insoluble, intricate, involved, knotty, opaque, problematic (also problematical), recondite, serious, spiny, stubborn, thorny, ticklish, tricky; bruising, burdensome, exhausting, labored, onerous, oppressive, stressful, taxing, tight, trying; annoying, bothersome, distressing, irksome, troublesome, vexatious; grievous, grim, strict, stringent; brutal, cruel, inhuman, painfulNear Antonyms achievable, clear, doable, elementary, manageable, uncomplicated; comforting, gentle, painless, relaxed, smooth, soothing; accessible, friendly, idiotproof, user-friendlyAntonyms cheap, easy, effortless, facile, light, mindless, simple, soft, undemanding