challenging

«challenging» in Mova's school dictionary: hard, needing effort or skill (a challenging puzzle) — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (challenging; more challenging, most challenging)

meaning for a pupil

1) hard, needing effort or skill (a challenging puzzle). tree →

2) (euphemism, jargon) bad, very difficult, troublesome: a «challenging child» = badly behaved; a «challenging year» = an awful one. tree →

3) questioning or confronting (a challenging look). tree →

sense in the lessons

In business, school and politics people say «challenging» instead of «bad» or «awful» to sound positive and in control; teachers say «challenging behaviour» for bad behaviour. All regions.

examples

• This is a challenging maths problem; take your time. tree →
• The company had a challenging year (it lost a lot of money). tree →
• The class has some challenging behaviour (some pupils misbehave). tree →
• Climbing the mountain was challenging but fun. tree →
• He gave the teacher a challenging stare. tree →
• The news report called the weather «challenging»: a storm closed the roads. tree →
• Report: «Sam can find group work challenging.» tree →

note

Trap: in reports and news it often means «bad» or «a problem». In a puzzle book it means «hard». Notice which.

In the corpora

• "A challenging class" means a badly behaved class.
• "Challenging trading conditions" means business is bad and losing money (UK).
• "Challenging" (jargon) means bad or very difficult.

Trees and pragmatics

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