difficult

«difficult» in Mova's judaism dictionary: Hard to do, understand or deal with; needing a lot of… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (difficult, more difficult, most difficult)

meaning for a pupil

1) Hard to do, understand or deal with; needing a lot of effort or skill. tree →

2) Full of problems or worries (a difficult time). tree →

3) (of a person) Not easy to please or get on with; unhelpful. tree →

sense in the lessons

Used everywhere: difficult questions, difficult words, difficult times. In maths and exams, «the difficult part» needs more steps. In stories, a difficult character causes trouble. Phrases: «find it difficult to», «make life difficult», «difficult to say», «a difficult decision».

examples

• Public domain books are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• And Samekh-Tzadi-Resh-Shin, between the teeth and tongue, lain down and flattened. [note 1: These last two words, שכובה ושטותה, are difficult to identify. (Sefer Yetzirah, Sefaria community translation) tree →
• The Notes have been extended, and it is hoped that they explain and illustrate difficult passages, and render this abstruse treatise more comprehensible than it has been hitherto found. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• This puzzle is very difficult. tree →
• I find it difficult to wake up early. tree →
• The last question was the most difficult. tree →
• It was a difficult time for the family. tree →
• The toddler is being difficult today. tree →
• It's difficult to say who will win. tree →
• Climbing the mountain was difficult but fun. tree →
• Its dialect renders it somewhat difficult to read. tree →

note

Comparisons use «more» and «most»: more difficult, NOT «difficulter». Opposite: easy, simple. Noun «difficulty». Synonyms: hard, tough, tricky (informal). In everyday speech «hard» is more common.

In the corpora

• "The terrible twos" means the difficult stage of a toddler around age two.
• "Challenging" (jargon) means bad or very difficult.
• "A real character" is a polite way to call someone odd, unusual or difficult.
• Ratings are about content such as violence, blood, fear and bad language, not about how difficult a game is.
• Perseverance means keeping going when things are difficult.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «difficult» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.