| / English Dictionary |
HARD
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: harder , hardest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure
Example:
why is it so hard for you to keep a secret?
Synonyms:
difficult; hard
Classified under:
Similar:
trying (hard to endure)
troublesome (causing difficulty or annoyance)
thorny (bristling with perplexities)
tall (impressively difficult)
serious (requiring effort or concentration; complex and not easy to answer or solve)
rugged; tough (very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution)
rocky; rough (full of hardship or trials)
nasty; tight (exasperatingly difficult to handle or circumvent)
herculean (extremely difficult; requiring the strength of a Hercules)
hard-fought (requiring great effort)
fractious (unpredictably difficult in operation; likely to be troublesome)
delicate; ticklish; touchy (difficult to handle; requiring great tact)
catchy; tricky (having concealed difficulty)
baffling; elusive; knotty; problematic; problematical; tough (making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe)
awkward; embarrassing; sticky; unenviable (hard to deal with; especially causing pain or embarrassment)
arduous (difficult to accomplish; demanding considerable mental effort and skill)
ambitious; challenging (requiring full use of your abilities or resources)
vexed (causing difficulty in finding an answer or solution; much disputed)
Also:
effortful (requiring great physical effort)
demanding (requiring more than usually expected or thought due; especially great patience and effort and skill)
hard (dispassionate)
Attribute:
difficultness; difficulty (the quality of being difficult)
Derivation:
hardness (the quality of being difficult to do)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort
Example:
set a punishing pace
Synonyms:
arduous; backbreaking; grueling; gruelling; hard; heavy; laborious; operose; punishing; toilsome
Classified under:
Similar:
effortful (requiring great physical effort)
Derivation:
hardness (the quality of being difficult to do)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Dried out
Example:
hard dry rolls left over from the day before
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
stale (lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Unfortunate or hard to bear
Example:
a tough break
Synonyms:
hard; tough
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)
Derivation:
hardness (excessive sternness)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Resisting weight or pressure
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unyielding (resistant to physical force or pressure)
adamantine (having the hardness of a diamond)
al dente (of pasta cooked so as to be firm when eaten)
corneous; hornlike; horny (made of horn (or of a substance resembling horn))
erect; tumid (of sexual organs; stiff and rigid)
firm; solid (not soft or yielding to pressure)
granitelike; granitic; rocklike; stony (hard as granite)
hardened; set (converted to solid form (as concrete))
woody (made hard like wood as the result of the deposition of lignin in the cell walls)
petrous; stonelike ((of bone especially the temporal bone) resembling stone in hardness)
semihard (somewhat hard)
steely (resembling steel in hardness)
Attribute:
hardness (the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale)
Antonym:
soft (yielding readily to pressure or weight)
Derivation:
hardness (the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Dispassionate
Example:
a hard bargainer
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
calculating; calculative; conniving; scheming; shrewd (acting with a specific goal)
case-hardened; hard-boiled; hardened (used of persons; emotionally hardened)
steely (resembling steel as in hardness)
Also:
difficult; hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)
merciless; unmerciful (having or showing no mercy)
insensitive (deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive)
tough (not given to gentleness or sentimentality)
Antonym:
soft (compassionate and kind; conciliatory)
Derivation:
hardness (devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness)
Sense 7
Meaning:
(of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward or touching the velum
Example:
Russian distinguished between hard consonants and palatalized or soft consonants
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
velar (produced with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate (as 'k' in 'cat' and 'g' in 'gun' and 'ng' in 'sing'))
Antonym:
soft ((of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward the hard palate; characterized by a hissing or hushing sound (as 's' and 'sh'))
Sense 8
Meaning:
(of light) transmitted directly from a pointed light source
Synonyms:
concentrated; hard
Classified under:
Adjectives
Antonym:
soft ((of light) transmitted from a broad light source or reflected)
Sense 9
Meaning:
Being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content
Example:
hard liquor
Synonyms:
hard; strong
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
alcoholic (characteristic of or containing alcohol)
Sense 10
Meaning:
Given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors
Example:
a hard drinker
Synonyms:
hard; heavy; intemperate
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
indulgent (characterized by or given to yielding to the wishes of someone)
Sense 11
Meaning:
Produced without vibration of the vocal cords
Example:
unvoiced consonants such as 'p' and 'k' and 's'
Synonyms:
hard; surd; unvoiced; voiceless
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
whispered (spoken in soft hushed tones without vibrations of the vocal cords)
Sense 12
Meaning:
Very strong or vigorous
Example:
a severe blow
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
strong (having strength or power greater than average or expected)
II. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
With effort or force or vigor
Example:
slammed the door hard
Classified under:
Pertainym:
hard (characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort)
Sense 2
Meaning:
To the full extent possible; all the way
Example:
swung the wheel hard left
Classified under:
Sense 3
Meaning:
Slowly and with difficulty
Example:
he was so dizzy he could hardly stand up straight
Synonyms:
hard; hardly
Classified under:
Adverbs
Pertainym:
hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Causing great damage or hardship
Example:
she was severely affected by the bank's failure
Synonyms:
hard; severely
Classified under:
Adverbs
Sense 5
Meaning:
With firmness
Example:
held hard to the railing
Synonyms:
firmly; hard
Classified under:
Adverbs
Sense 6
Meaning:
Earnestly or intently
Example:
stared hard at the accused
Classified under:
Adverbs
Sense 7
Meaning:
With pain or distress or bitterness
Example:
he took the rejection very hard
Classified under:
Adverbs
Sense 8
Meaning:
Very near or close in space or time
Example:
a strike followed hard upon the plant's opening
Classified under:
Adverbs
Sense 9
Meaning:
Into a solid condition
Example:
concrete that sets hard within a few hours
Classified under:
Adverbs
Pertainym:
hardened (converted to solid form (as concrete))
Sense 10
Meaning:
Indulging excessively
Example:
he drank heavily
Synonyms:
hard; heavily; intemperately
Classified under:
Adverbs
Context examples:
The short, hard coat may be any color.
(American Foxhound, NCI Thesaurus)
An intense fear of being in open places or in situations where it may be hard to escape, or where help may not be available.
(Agoraphobia, NCI Dictionary)
And it would have gone hard with him had not Collie appeared on the scene.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
This makes it hard for your health care provider to know if you really have one of these diseases, and if so, which one.
(Autoimmune Diseases, NIH)
Is it hard for your child to sit still?
(Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)
Stable angina is the most common type. It happens when the heart is working harder than usual.
(Angina, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)
It can make it hard for you to read, write, and say what you mean to say.
(Aphasia, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)
It rained hard this afternoon, as you know, and my patients were the only people who called.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Tooth enamel is the hardest material present in mammals.
(‘Game-changing’ research could solve evolution mysteries, University of Cambridge)
"It's really hard to get things to mix when using a lab-on-a-chip," said Remmi Danae Baker of Penn State.
(Tiny swimming 'doughnuts' deliver the biomedical goods, National Science Foundation)
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