| Main Entry: | difficult |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hard on someone; hard to do |
Synonyms: |
Gargantuan, Herculean, ambitious, arduous, backbreaker, bothersome, burdensome, challenging, crucial, demanding, difficile, easier said than done, effortful, exacting, formidable, galling, hard-won, heavy, immense, intricate, irritating, labored, laborious, no picnic, not easy, onerous, operose, painful, problem, problematic, prohibitive, rigid, severe, stiff, strenuous, titanic, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying, unyielding, uphill, upstream, wearisome |
Antonyms: |
calm, easy, free, manageable, plain, simple, uncomplicated |
| Main Entry: | difficult |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | complicated; hard to comprehend |
Synonyms: |
abstract, abstruse, baffling, bewildering, complex, confounding, confusing, dark, deep, delicate, enigmatic, enigmatical, entangled, esoteric, formidable, hard to explain, hard to solve, hidden, inexplicable, intricate, involved, knotty, labyrinthine, loose, meandering, mysterious, mystical, mystifying, nice, obscure, obstinate, paradoxical, perplexing, problematical, profound, puzzling, rambling, subtle, tangled, thorny, ticklish, troublesome, unclear, unfathomable, unintelligible, vexing |
Antonyms: |
easy, simple, straightforward, uncomplicated |
| Main Entry: | difficult |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | unmanageable socially |
Synonyms: |
argumentative, bearish, boorish, dark, demanding, fastidious, finicky, fractious, fussy, grim, hard to please, impolite, intractable, irritable, oafish, obstreperous, perverse, picky, refractory, rigid, rude, tiresome, tough, troublesome, trying, unaccommodating, unamenable |
Antonyms: |
calm, friendly, sociable |
| Main Entry: | ambitious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | requiring great effort, ability |
Synonyms: |
arduous, bold, challenging, demanding, difficult, elaborate, energetic, exacting, formidable, grandiose, hard, impressive, industrious, lofty, pretentious, severe, strenuous, visionary |
Antonyms: |
easy, facile |
| Main Entry: | awkward |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | embarrassing |
Synonyms: |
compromising, delicate, difficult, embarrassed, ill at ease, inconvenient, inopportune, painful, perplexing, sticky*, thorny, ticklish, troublesome, trying, uncomfortable, unpleasant, untimely |
Antonyms: |
clever |
| Main Entry: | burdensome |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | troublesome |
Synonyms: |
carking, crushing, demanding, difficult, disturbing, exacting, exigent, heavy*, irksome, onerous, oppressive, superincumbent, taxing, tough, trying, wearing, wearying, weighty |
Antonyms: |
aiding, helpful, helping, relieving, unburdensome |
| Main Entry: | complicated |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, complex |
Synonyms: |
Byzantine, Daedalean, Gordian, abstruse, arduous, can of worms, convoluted, difficult, elaborate, entangled, fancy, gasser, hard, hi-tech, interlaced, intricate, involved, knotty, labyrinthine, mega factor, mixed, perplexing, problematic, puzzling, recondite, sophisticated, troublesome, various, wheels within wheels |
| Notes: | something complex may be well-organized and logically constructed as well as subtle and intricate, while a thing that is complicated will have something irregular, perverse, asymmetrical in addition to fundamental intricacy; complex is more formal and technical (a problem in mathematics is complex) while something like personal life can be complicated |
Antonyms: |
easy, facile, simple |
| Main Entry: | crabby/crabbed |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | in a bad mood |
Synonyms: |
acid, acrid, acrimonious, awkward, bad-tempered, blunt, brusque, captious, choleric, churlish, cranky*, cross, crotchety, crusty, cynical, difficult, dour, fretful, gloomy, glum, grouchy, harsh, huffy, ill-humored, ill-tempered, irascible, irritable, misanthropic, morose, nasty-tempered, peevish, perverse, petulant, prickly, saturnine, snappish, snappy, sour, splenetic, sulky, sullen, surly, tart, testy, tough, trying, unsociable |
Antonyms: |
happy |
| Main Entry: | crotchety |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | irritable, often due to old age |
Synonyms: |
awkward, bad-tempered, bearish, cantankerous, contrary, crabby, cranky, cross, cross-grained, crusty, curmudgeonly, difficult, disagreeable, eccentric, fractious, grouchy, grumpy, irritable, obstinate, obstreperous, odd, ornery*, peevish, queer, surly, testy, unusual, vinegary, waspish, waspy |
Antonyms: |
cheerful, happy, pleasant |
| Main Entry: | deep |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | abstract, complicated in meaning |
Synonyms: |
Delphic, Orphic, Sibylline, abstruse, acute, arcane, complex, concealed, difficult, discerning, esoteric, hard to understand, heavy*, hermetic, hidden, incisive, intricate, learned, mysterious, obscure, occult, penetrating, profound, recondite, sagacious, secret, serious, wise |
Antonyms: |
frivolous, ignorant, shallow, superficial, trivial, unintelligent |