Home Synonyms difficulty

Synonyms of difficulty in English:

difficulty


See US English definition of difficulty

See UK English definition of difficulty

See Spanish definition of dificultad

noun

1‘her note had been penned with obvious difficulty’

SYNONYMS
strain, struggling, awkwardness, trouble, toil, labour, laboriousness, strenuousness, arduousness
pains, problems, trials and tribulations
informal hassle, stress
literary dolour, travails
ANTONYMS

ease

2‘the questions are arranged in order of difficulty’

SYNONYMS
complexity, complicatedness, intricacy, perplexity, knottiness, awkwardness
difficultness, trickiness, hardness
obscurity, abstruseness
ANTONYMS

simplicity

3‘the cost of the journey was not an insurmountable difficulty’

SYNONYMS
problem, complication, issue, disadvantage, snag, hitch, drawback, pitfall, handicap, impediment, hindrance, obstacle, hurdle, stumbling block, obstruction, barrier
informal fly in the ointment, prob, headache, hiccup, facer
British informal spanner in the works
North American informal monkey wrench in the works
dated cumber
literary trammel

4‘they felt unable to ask for help when they were in difficulty’

SYNONYMS
trouble, distress, crisis, hardship
adversity, extremity, need
hard times, dire straits
predicament, quandary, dilemma, plight
informal hot water, deep water, a fix, a jam, a spot, a scrape, a stew, a hole, a pickle