difficulty

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: dif=fi=cul=ty
• COUNT in NET: 8 in 8 verses (in OT : 3 in 3 verses) (in NT : 5 in 5 verses)

OXFORD DICTIONARY

difficulty, n. (pl. -ies)
1 the state or condition of being difficult.
2 a a difficult thing; a problem or hindrance. b (often in pl.) a cause of distress or hardship (in financial difficulties; there was someone in difficulties in the water).

Idiom

make difficulties be intransigent or unaccommodating. with difficulty not easily.

Etymology

ME f. L difficultas (as DIS-, facultas FACULTY)

THESAURUS

difficulty

Gordian knot, abstruseness, adverse circumstances, adversity, affliction, aggravation, agreement to disagree, altercation, annoyance, arduousness, asperity, bad news, bedevilment, beef, bickering, blight, block, blockade, bore, bother, botheration, bothersomeness, bottleneck, bummer, burden, burthen, care, cargo, catch, challenge, charge, complexity, complication, controversy, cordon, crabbedness, crampedness, crashing bore, cross, cross-purposes, cumbrance, curse, curtain, deadweight, deepness, demurral, demurrer, determent, deterrent, devilment, difference, difference of opinion, difficulties, dilemma, disadvantage, disagreement, disparity, dispute, distress, dividedness, division, dogging, downer, drag, drawback, embarrassment, emergency, encumbrance, esoterica, exasperation, exigency, falling-out, fight, fix, formidableness, freight, hamper, handicap, hang-up, harassment, hard knocks, hard life, hard lot, hardcase, hardness, hardship, harrying, hassle, hazard, headache, heavy sledding, hindrance, hitch, hot water, hounding, hurdle, impediment, impedimenta, imposition, inconvenience, intricacy, irritation, jam, joker, knottiness, laboriousness, load, lumber, mess, misunderstanding, molestation, nuisance, objection, obstacle, obstruction, obstructive, odds, one small difficulty, onus, pack, painfulness, pass, penalty, persecution, pest, pickle, pinch, pitfall, plight, polarization, predicament, pressure, problem, profoundness, profundity, protest, quandary, question, reconditeness, remonstrance, remonstration, rigor, rub, scrape, sea of troubles, snag, squabble, strain, strait, straits, stress, stress of life, stumbling block, stumbling stone, trial, tribulation, trouble, troubles, vale of tears, variance, vexation, vexatiousness, vicissitude, vigor, weight, white elephant, worriment, worry

ROGET THESAURUS

difficulty

Complexity

N complexity, complexness, complexus, complication, implication, intricacy, intrication, perplexity, network, labyrinth, wilderness, jungle, involution, raveling, entanglement, coil, sleave, tangled skein, knot, Gordian knot, wheels within wheels, kink, gnarl, knarl, webwork, difficulty, gnarled, knarled, complex, complexed, intricate, complicated, perplexed, involved, raveled, entangled, knotted, tangled, inextricable, irreducible.

Difficulty

N difficulty, hardness, impracticability, tough work, hard work, uphill work, hard task, Herculean task, Augean task, task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift, dilemma, embarrassment, deadlock, perplexity, intricacy, entanglement, complexity, cross fire, awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, dignus vindice nodus, net, meshes, maze, coil, crooked path, involvement, nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point, vexed question, vexata quaestio, poser, puzzle, paradox, hard nut to crack, nut to crack, bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum, where the shoe pinches, nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt, critical situation, crisis, trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble, scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest, sea of troubles, peck of troubles, pretty kettle of fish, pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado, false position, set fast, stand, standstill, deadlock, dead set, fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac, hitch, stumbling block, crab, curmudgeon, difficult, not easy, hard, tough, troublesome, toilsome, irksome, operose, laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable, sooner said than done, more easily said than done, easier said than done, difficult to deal with, hard to deal with, ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby, not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water, awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable, intractable, stubborn, perverse, refractory, plaguy, trying, thorny, rugged, knotted, knotty, invious, pathless, trackless, labyrinthine, intricate, complicated, impracticable, not feasible, desperate, embarrassing, perplexing, delicate, ticklish, critical, beset with difficulties, full of difficulties, surrounded by difficulties, entangled by difficulties, encompassed with difficulties, under a difficulty, in a box, in difficulty, in hot water, in the suds, in a cleft stick, in a fix, in the wrong box, in a scrape, in deep water, in a fine pickle, in extremis, between two stools, between Scylla and Charybdis, surrounded by shoals, surrounded by breakers, surrounded by quicksands, at cross purposes, not out of the wood, reduced to straits, hard pressed, sorely pressed, run hard, pinched, put to it, straitened, hard up, hard put to it, hard set, put to one's shifts, puzzled, at a loss, at the end of one's tether, at the end of one's rope, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, at a standstill, graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground, stuck fast, set fast, up a tree, at bay, aux abois, driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one's wit's end, driven to the wall, au bout de son Latin, out of one's depth, thrown out, accomplished with difficulty, hard-fought, hard-earned, with difficulty, with much ado, barely, hardly, uphill, against the stream, against the grain, d rebours, invita Minerva, in the teeth of, at a pinch, upon a pinch, at long odds, against long odds, ay there's the rub, hic labor hoc opus, things are come to a pretty pass, ab inconvenienti, ad astra per aspera, acun chemin de fleurs ne conduit a la gloire.

Hindrance

N hindrance, prevention, preclusion, obstruction, stoppage, embolus, embolism, infarct, interruption, interception, interclusion, hindrance, impedition, retardment, retardation, embarrassment, oppilation, coarctation, stricture, restriction, restraint, inhibition, blockade, interference, interposition, obtrusion, discouragement, discountenance, impediment, let, obstacle, obstruction, knot, knag, check, hitch, contretemps, screw loose, grit in the oil, bar, stile, barrier, turnstile, turnpike, gate, portcullis, beaver dam, trocha, barricade, wall, dead wall, sea wall, levee breakwater, groyne, bulkhead, block, buffer, stopper, boom, dam, weir, burrock, drawback, objection, stumbling-block, stumbling-stone, lion in the path, snag, snags and sawyers, encumbrance, incumbrance, clog, skid, shoe, spoke, drag, drag chain, drag weight, stay, stop, preventive, prophylactic, load, burden, fardel, onus, millstone round one's neck, impedimenta, dead weight, lumber, pack, nightmare, Ephialtes, incubus, old man of the sea, remora, difficulty, insuperable, obstacle, estoppel, ill wind, head wind, trammel, tether, hold back, counterpoise, damper, wet blanket, hinderer, marplot, killjoy, party pooper, party crasher, interloper, trail of a red herring, opponent, hindering, obstructive, obstruent, impeditive, impedient, intercipient, prophylactic, impedimentary, in the way of, unfavorable, onerous, burdensome, cumbrous, cumbersome, obtrusive, hindered, windbound, waterlogged, heavy laden, hard pressed, unassisted &c (assist), single-handed, alone, deserted, occurrent nubes.