What does "hard" mean?
A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.
Hard
/hɑːd/ adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.
- Grammar: hard is listed as adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: difficult, tough, about, absolute.
- Useful contrasts: cushiony, flexible, moldable.
- Usage evidence: The discrepancy between the stories of the two parties involved in the accident was so great that the authorities had a hard time deciding which side was telling the truth.
How to use "hard"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "hard" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "hard" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "hard" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "hard" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "hard" is acting as adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "difficult" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "hard", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water. countable
"The Monastery's ironworks at Sowley were renowned for centuries but declined with the passing of the 'wooden walls' at Buckler's Hard — a great number of these ships having been built with timber from the Beaulieu Woods […]"
- 2 A tyre whose compound is softer than superhards, and harder than mediums. countable
- 3 Crack cocaine. slang, uncountable
- 4 Hard labor. slang, uncountable
"The prisoners were sentenced to three years' hard."
Verb
- 1 To make hard, harden. obsolete, transitive
"He knows vain men: he sees their harts that hard them In Guiles and Wiles, and will not hee regard them?"
Adjective
- 1 Solid and firm.
"Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain."
- 2 An acronym for remembering desirable characteristics for goal-setting: heartfelt, animated, required, difficult. mnemonic, not-comparable
"Unlike achievable and realistic goals that leave you stuck in the status-quo, HARD Goals light up the brain and encourage great performance."
- 3 Solid and firm.; Resistant to pressure; difficult to break, cut, or penetrate.
"This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it."
- 4 Solid and firm.; Strong.
- 5 Solid and firm.; Containing alcohol.
"hard cider, hard lemonade, hard seltzer, hard soda"
Show 27 more definitions
- 6 Solid and firm.; Very acidic or tannic.
"While most 1974s remain hard, tannic, hollow wines lacking ripeness, flesh, and character, a number of the Graves estates did produce surprisingly spicy, interesting wines."
- 7 Solid and firm.; High in dissolved chemical salts, especially those of calcium.
- 8 Solid and firm.; Having the capability of being a permanent magnet by being a material with high magnetic coercivity (compare soft).
- 9 Solid and firm.; Having a high energy (high frequency; short wavelength).
"hard X-rays"
- 10 Solid and firm.; Made up of parallel rays, producing clearly defined shadows.
- 11 Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.; Difficult or requiring a lot of effort to do, understand, experience, or deal with.
"a hard problem; a hard question; a hard topic"
- 12 Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.; Demanding a lot of effort to endure.
"a hard life"
- 13 Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.; Severe, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.
"a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character"
- 14 Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.; Difficult to resist or control; powerful. dated
"The stag was too hard for the horse."
- 15 Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.; Hardened; having unusually strong defences.
"a hard site"
- 16 Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.; Tough, muscular, badass. slang
"He thinks he's well hard."
- 17 Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.; Excellent, impressive. slang
"This song goes hard."
- 18 Unquestionable; unequivocal.
"hard evidence; a hard requirement"
- 19 Having a comparatively larger or a ninety-degree angle.
"At the intersection, there are two roads going to the left. Take the hard left."
- 20 Sexually aroused; having an erect penis. slang, vulgar
"I got so hard watching two hot girls wrestle each other on the beach."
- 21 Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.
- 22 Fortis.; Plosive. not-comparable
"There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre"."
- 23 Fortis.; Unvoiced. not-comparable
"Hard k, t, s, ch, as distinguished from soft, g, d, z, j."
- 24 Velarized or plain, rather than palatalized.
"The letter ж (ž) in Russian is always hard."
- 25 Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment.; Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
- 26 Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment.; Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in colour or shading.
- 27 In a physical form, not digital. not-comparable
"a soft or hard copy; a digital or hard archive"
- 28 Using a manual or physical process, not by means of a software command. not-comparable
"a hard reboot or reset"
- 29 Far, extreme.
"hard right, hard left"
- 30 Of silk: not having had the natural gum boiled off.
- 31 Of a market: having more demand than supply; being a seller's market.
"Undercapitalized insurers cannot retain more catastrophe risks when the market is hard […]"
- 32 Hardcore.
Adjective
- 1 not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure wordnet
- 2 characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort wordnet
- 3 dried out wordnet
- 4 unfortunate or hard to bear wordnet
- 5 resisting weight or pressure wordnet
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 dispassionate wordnet
- 7 (of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward or touching the velum wordnet
- 8 (of light) transmitted directly from a pointed light source wordnet
- 9 being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content wordnet
- 10 given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors wordnet
- 11 produced without vibration of the vocal cords wordnet
- 12 very strong or vigorous wordnet
Adverb
- 1 With much force or effort.
"He hit the puck hard up the ice."
- 2 With difficulty.
"His degree was hard earned."
- 3 So as to raise difficulties. obsolete
"The question is hard set."
- 4 Compactly.
"The lake had finally frozen hard."
- 5 Near, close. archaic
"At the intersection, bear hard left."
Adverb
- 1 with effort or force or vigor wordnet
- 2 to the full extent possible; all the way wordnet
- 3 slowly and with difficulty wordnet
- 4 causing great damage or hardship wordnet
- 5 with firmness wordnet
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 earnestly or intently wordnet
- 7 with pain or distress or bitterness wordnet
- 8 very near or close in space or time wordnet
- 9 into a solid condition wordnet
- 10 indulging excessively wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
Example
"The discrepancy between the stories of the two parties involved in the accident was so great that the authorities had a hard time deciding which side was telling the truth."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "hard"?
Common synonyms include: difficult, tough, about, absolute, abstruse, accented.
How do you use "hard" in a sentence?
The discrepancy between the stories of the two parties involved in the accident was so great that the authorities had a hard time deciding which side was telling the truth.
How do you pronounce "hard"?
Pronounced /hɑːd/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kort-ús, from *kret- (“strong, powerful”). Cognates Cognate with Yola hard (“hard”), West Frisian hurd (“hard”), Alemannic German hert (“hard”), Bavarian hoat (“hard”), Central Franconian haat (“hard”), Dutch hard (“hard”), German hart (“hard”), Luxembourgish haart (“hard”), Danish, Swedish hård (“hard”), Faroese, Icelandic harður (“hard”), Norwegian Bokmål hard (“hard”), Norwegian Nynorsk hard, hard’u (“hard”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus, “hard”), Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong, mighty”), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu, “power, might, ability”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu).
Etymology 2
From Middle English harden, herden, from Old English heardian (“to become hard”) and hierdan (“to make hard”), from Proto-West Germanic *hardēn and *hardijan, from Proto-Germanic *hardijaną. Cognates Cognate with Dutch harden (“to harden”), German härten (“to harden”), Danish hærde (“to harden; to temper”), Icelandic herða (“to harden”), Norwegian Bokmål herde (“to harden; to toughen”), Norwegian Nynorsk herda (“to make hard, temper; harden”), Swedish härda (“harden, temper”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gahardjan), *𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (*hardjan, “to harden”).
Etymology 3
* From Old English and Norman derivatives of Old French hardi (“tough, brave, hardy”). There are several Germanic variants of this origin, such as Swedish hård, Dutch hard, etc., all from Proto-Germanic *harduz. * English topographical surname for farmers living on hard ground, from hard. This also appeared as the surname Hardacre.