difficulty

noun

dif·​fi·​cul·​ty ˈdi-fi-(ˌ)kəl-tē 

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

Synonyms

• adversity
• asperity
• hardness
• hardship
• rigor

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 on the Web

Mining difficulty, a measure of computing power to mine Bitcoin, has swelled almost sixfold since the 2020 halving, according to a biweekly update from crypto-mining website btc.com. —David Pan, Fortune, 14 Apr. 2024

His work to study and refine this relationship—between randomness and a problem’s difficulty and solvability—has had profound impacts on modern computing. —Christian Thorsberg, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 Apr. 2024

Ripa did concede that the difficulty of aging has softened in the 21st century, however. —Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 12 Apr. 2024

Therein lies the difficulty in writing about Simpson, whose feats on the field were unquestionably historic. —Sam Farmer, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024

One of Woodward's previous lawyers said his client has Asperger's syndrome, a developmental disorder that generally causes difficulty with social interactions, and struggled with his own sexuality. —CBS News, 9 Apr. 2024

While tricking adult cells into becoming embryonic and beginning to grow again has been successful, practical difficulties make cloning very inefficient. —Jessica Dulong, CNN, 9 Apr. 2024

Despite the headline-grabbing takeaway that ASEAN seems to be gravitating toward China, experts—including Seah—say the report actually demonstrates the difficulty of attributing a unified attitude toward the U.S.-China rivalry to the notoriously divided bloc. —Koh Ewe, TIME, 2 Apr. 2024

But commercializing nuclear fusion still remains a long way off as scientists work to solve fiendish engineering and scientific difficulties. —Laura Paddison, CNN, 1 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

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.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing difficulty

• learning difficulty

Kids Definition

difficulty

noun

dif·​fi·​cul·​ty ˈdif-ə-(ˌ)kəl-tē 

plural difficulties

1

: difficult nature

the difficulty of a task

2

: great effort

walked with difficulty

3

: something that is hard to do : obstacle

overcome difficulties

4

: a difficult or trying situation : trouble

in financial difficulties

5

: a disagreement in opinion

we ironed out our difficulties