Hard

/hɑːd/

Synonyms for "hard" (825 found)

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Closest matches (165)

Adjective(13 words)

difficult tough arduous arduously backbreaking burden challenge challengingchallenging behaviorscomputational complexityconcentrated cruellerdense mass

about absolute abstruse accented acerb acerbic acrid acrimonious actively actual acute adamant adamantine addictive adverse afflictive agonizing agonizingly alcoholicall but

Show 129 more words

almostalong towardalveolar amaroidal anesthetic angry antagonistic apical apico-alveolar apico-dental approximately ardent ardently arduous arduously around articulated assiduous assiduously assimilated astringentat close quartersat handatrocious austere avid back backbreaking bad badly baffling bankrupt bare barytonebec et onglesbeefybeyond onebilabial biting bitterbitter as gallbleak bloodless blunt bony bothersome bouncing bowelless brassy brazen broad broke brutal brutish bulky burdensome businesslike busted cacuminal calamitous calculating callous calloused carefully cartilaginouscase hardenedcase-hardened cast-iron caustic cement cemental central cerebral checked chewy clear closeclose aboutclose at handclose byclose-knit close-textured close-woven coarse cohesive coldcold bloodedcold of heartcoldblooded coldhearted compact compacted complex complicated compressed concentrated concrete condensed conditioning conflicting congested conscienceless conscientious conscientiously consolidated consonant consonantal continuant contrary cool coriaceous corneous counter counteractive crabbed crammedcrammed fullcramp cramping critical crowded cruel dark deep deeply definite delicate demanding dense

Adjective(2 words)

adamantine concrete

Noun(1 words)

crack cocaine

Strong matches (248)

Adjective(20 words)

dense materialsdifficult readingdifficult taskdifficulty earnestly firm firmest flintier flintiest geez go gosh grueling gruelling heavyinconvenient truthintemperate intensely knockout laborious

dental despotic determinedly detrimental devastating devoted devotedly dictatorial difficile difficult diligent diligently disastrous dispassionate dissimilated distinct distressing distressinglydog-eat-dogdogged

Show 194 more words

doggedly domineering dorsal doughty dourdown-to-earthdull durable dure dynamically eager eagerly earnestly effortful effortfully enduring energetic energetically enigmatic evil exacting excruciating exhausting factualfast byfatiguing fervent fibrous firm flat flinthearted flintlike flinty forceful forcefully forcible forcibly forcy formidable frontfull bloodedfull-blooded full-strength fundamentalist garbled gentry genuine glide glossal glottal gluey gnawing granitelike granitic grave grievous grim grinding griping gristly gutsy guttural gutty habit-forming habituating hairy halehammer and tongshard as nailshard byhard corehard earnedhard foughthard of hearthard to understandhard uphard-bitten hard-boiled hard-core hard-earned hard-fought hard-nosed hard-set hardened hardheaded hardhearted hardworking hardy harmful harrowing harsh harshlyheart and soulheartily heartless hearty heavy hefty herculean hereabout hereabouts hidebound high horny hostile hurtful hurting husky ill immovable immutable impassible impecunious impenetrable impenitent impermeable impervious implacable impliable impoverished impregnablein oppositionin spitting distancein the redinclement incomprehensible incontestable incontrovertible indefatigable indefatigably indigent indisputable indurate indurated industrious industriously inelastic ineluctable inescapable inexorable inflexible inhuman inimical inscrutable insensate insensible insensitive insolent insoluble intemperate intense intensely intensive intent intently intonated intractable intransigent intricate inured involved irksome iron iron-hard ironbound ironclad ironhanded ironlike irreconcilablejam packedjam-packed jammed jawbreaking jumbledjust around the cornerkeen knotted knotty labial labiodental labiovelar labored laborious laboriously lapideous lasting lateral lax lean leatherlike leathery light lingual liquid

Noun(5 words)

difficult decisiondifficult to learndurafirm griplabor vigorously

Adjective(5 words)

firm granitic grim inflexible lithic

Adverb(4 words)

firmly hardly heavily intemperately

Related words (412)

lithoid lithoidallost to shamelow lusty magisterial manfully marble marblelike massivematter-of-factmean merciless methodical mid mightily mighty miserable monophthongal most

Show 334 more words

muchmuscle boundmuscle-bound muted narrow nasal nasalized nearnear at handnearabout nearabouts nearby nervynever idlenighnigh aboutno picnicnonporousnot easynot farobdurate obfuscated obscure obscured obstinate occlusive onerousonly a stepopen operose operosely opposed opposing opposite oppressive orthodox osseous overtechnical oxytone pachydermatous packed painful painfully palatal palatalized paroxysmal penetrating penniless perplexed perplexing perseveringly persistent persistently petrified pharyngeal pharyngealized philistine phonemic phonetic phonicphysiologically addictivepiercing pitch pitched pitiless plain poignant poor positive posttonic potent poverty-stricken powerful practical practically pragmatic pragmatical prickly procrustean profoundproof againstpsychologically addictivepuissant pungent purist puristic puritan puritanic puritanical puzzling racking real realistic reconditered bloodedred-blooded relentless relentlessly remorseless resistant resistive retroflex rigid rigorist rigoristic rigorous robust robustious rock-ribbed rockbound rocklike rocky ropy rough rounded rugged ruthless savage scabrous scrambled searching seared sedulous sedulously semivowel serious serried setset with thornssevere severely shameless sharp shooting sinewy sinister slavish sleepless sober soft solid solidified sonant sound sour spartan spasmatic spasmic spasmodic spiny spiritedly spirituous stabbing stable stalwart stark steadfastly steady steeledsteeled againststeellike steely steep stern sticky stiff stinging stonelike stony stonyhearted stopped stout straight straightforward straightlaced straining straitlaced strapping strenuous strenuously stressed stressful strict stringent stringy strongstrong as brandystrong as strongstrong willedstrong-willed stubborn studiously sturdy substantial surdsure enoughsure-enough syllabic systematic tangled tart tenacious tense terriblethe hard waythereabout thereabouts thickthick skinnedthick-growing thick-skinned thickset thorny throaty ticklish tireless tiresome tiring toilsome toilsomely tonal tonictooth and nailtormenting torturous toughtough as leathertricky troublesome troublous trying twangy tyrannical unabject unaccented unaffected unalterable unavoidable unbending unblushing unchangeable uncompassionate uncompassioned uncompromising uncontrite undeniable unemotional unfalteringly unfavorable unfeeling unflagging unforgiving unfriendly ungentle ungiving unidealistic unkind unmelted unmerciful unmoved unnatural unpitiful unpitying unpleasant unquestionable unrelenting unremitting unremorseful unrepentant unrepenting unresponsive unromantic unrounded unruly unsentimental unsleeping unsoftened unsolvable unsparing unstressed unsympathetic unsympathizing untiring untiringly untouched untoward unvarnished unwearied unyielding uphill urgently utilitarian vehement velar verifiable vigorous vigorously vinous violently viscid viscose viscous vocalic vocoid voiced voiceless vowel vowellike weak wearing wearisome wearying well-built well-constructed well-defined well-founded well-grounded well-made well-nigh wicked wide winy wirywith a kickwith a willwith effortwithin callwithin earshotwithin hearingwithin reachwithout mercywretched zealous zealously

Noun(9 words)

math challengingmore energeticallymore forcefullyrough pushsolid color palettesolid particlesolid surfacestone tombsstoney

Adjective(36 words)

not easilyobstacle operose ouch ow punishing push rigidrigid protocolrigid structurerigid systemsevere solidsolid approachsolid contentssolid mattersolid matter the materialsolid samplesolid substancesolidest

Show 16 more words

steeliest stern strict strong surd thoroughly toilsometough parttrickiertry harderunvoiced vigorously voicelesswith difficultywow yikes

Adjective(11 words)

resistant rigid robust solid stiff stony stout sturdy tough unbending unyielding

Adverb(2 words)

severelystrongly bonded solid

Choosing the right synonym

Closest matches in this entry: difficult, tough, about, absolute, abstruse.
demanding: 'Demanding' shifts focus to what's required of you, a demanding job drains your energy and attention relentlessly.
Sentence evidence is available for hard, so synonym choice can be checked against real usage rather than a flat word list.
Ranking signals come from wordnet, opengloss, moby, derived_reverse, and related lexical sources.

Synonym selection checklist

Match the part of speech before comparing meanings.
Check whether the synonym changes intensity, formality, or emotional tone.
Read the replacement inside the full sentence, not just beside "hard".
Prefer the clearest word over the most unusual word when writing for speed or comprehension.

When not to replace "hard"

Keep "hard" when the sentence already sounds natural, when a synonym would add unintended emphasis, or when readers need the most familiar wording. A synonym should clarify or sharpen the message, not simply make the sentence look more varied.

If two options seem close, choose the one that best matches the audience and purpose of the sentence.

Replacement workflow

1. Preserve meaning

Choose a synonym only if it keeps the core idea of "hard" intact in the sentence you are editing.

2. Tune tone

Check whether the replacement sounds more formal, casual, emotional, technical, or forceful than the original word.

3. Re-read context

Read the full sentence after the swap. Keep the synonym only when the sentence becomes clearer or more precise.

Review note: Synonym lists are ranked with lexical data and reviewed for practical writing value. Use the comparison notes, sentence evidence, and source labels together; a high-ranking synonym can still be wrong when the audience, register, or grammar changes.

Final fit check

After choosing a replacement for "hard", read the sentence once for meaning and once for rhythm. The best synonym should feel natural in the full sentence, not only accurate in a word list.

If the synonym makes the sentence slower, vaguer, or more dramatic than intended, keep "hard" or choose a simpler alternative from the closest-match group.

How these synonyms differ

demanding - 'Demanding' shifts focus to what's required of you, a demanding job drains your energy and attention relentlessly.
grueling - 'Grueling' is physically or mentally exhausting, it implies sustained suffering, not just challenge.
rigid - 'Rigid' uses 'hard' in its physical sense, stiff and inflexible. Applied to people, it means unyielding or strict.
tough - 'Tough' adds resilience, a tough task fights back, and a tough person can take punishment. More visceral than 'hard.'

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

7 relation types

More general

12 entries

concept condition difficulty discipline exclamationgrammatical categoryinterjectionmaterial propertymodifier quality state task

More specific

23 entries

calculus problemcue exclamationdegree adverbdifficult assignmentemphatic exclamationhard metalhard plastichard rockintensifiermath exercisemath problemmotivational exclamationpain exclamationpractice testquiz problemreading prompt

Showing 16 of 23 words.

Collocations

14 entries

hard copyhard datahard lessonhard math problemhard problemhard sciencehard timehard workhit hardplay hardpush hardstudy hardthink hardwork hard

Inflections

2 entries

harder hardest

Derivations

9 entries

harden hardening harder hardest hardiness hardly hardness hardship hardy

Antonyms

1 entries

soft

similar

74 entries

adamantineal dentealcoholic ambitious arduous awkward bad baffling calculating calculative case-hardened catchy challenging complex conniving corneous

Showing 16 of 74 words.

Translations

120 translations across 76 languages.

Ancient Greek

2 entries

χαλεπός adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
ἐργώδης adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Arabic

4 entries

صعب adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
صعب adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
صَعْب adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
وَاعْر adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Armenian

2 entries

բարդ adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
դժվար adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Bashkir

2 entries

ауыр adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
ҡыйын adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Bulgarian

1 entries

труден adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Catalan

2 entries

complicat adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
difícil adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Cebuano

1 entries

lisod adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Chamicuro

1 entries

yeewa adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Cherokee

1 entries

ᏍᏓᏯ adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Chinese Cantonese

1 entries

難 /难 adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Chinese Mandarin

2 entries

困難 /困难 adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
難 /难 adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Czech

3 entries

krušný adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
obtížný adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
těžký adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Danish

1 entries

vanskelig adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Dutch

2 entries

moeilijk adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
zwaar adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Egyptian

1 entries

q-qs-n:nDs adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Esperanto

1 entries

malfacila adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Estonian

1 entries

kõva adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Faroese

3 entries

ringur adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
strævin adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
torførur adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Finnish

3 entries

hankala adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
kova adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
vaikea adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

French

2 entries

difficile adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
dur adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

German

4 entries

hart adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
herausfordernd adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
schwer adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
schwierig adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Gothic

1 entries

𐌰𐌲𐌻𐌿𐍃 adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Greek

1 entries

δύσκολος adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Haitian Creole

1 entries

difisil adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Hindi

3 entries

कठिन adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
दूभर adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
मुश्किल adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Hungarian

1 entries

nehéz adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Icelandic

1 entries

erfiður adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Ido

1 entries

desfacila adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Ilocano

1 entries

narigat adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Indonesian

3 entries

sukar adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
sulit adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
susah adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Interlingua

1 entries

difficile adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Irish

1 entries

doiligh adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Italian

3 entries

difficile adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
duro adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
intenso adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Japanese

2 entries

困難な adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
難しい adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Korean

1 entries

어렵다 adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Kyrgyz

1 entries

оор adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Latin

1 entries

difficilis adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Latvian

2 entries

grūts adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
smags adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Limburgish

1 entries

helle adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Lithuanian

2 entries

sunki adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
sunkus adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Lombard

1 entries

dur adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Macedonian

1 entries

тежок adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Malay

1 entries

susah adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Navajo

1 entries

nantłʼah adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Norwegian Bokmål

1 entries

vanskelig adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Occitan

1 entries

dificil adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Old English

1 entries

earfoþe adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Old Tupi

1 entries

abaíb adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Ottoman Turkish

1 entries

دشوار adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Pashto

1 entries

ګران adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Persian

4 entries

دشوار adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
سخت adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
صعب adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
مشکل adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Polish

1 entries

trudny adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Portuguese

1 entries

difícil adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Romanian

1 entries

greu adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Russian

2 entries

тру́дный adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
тяжёлый adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Samoan

1 entries

faigatā adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Scottish Gaelic

2 entries

doirbh adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
duilich adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Southern Altai

1 entries

уур adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Spanish

4 entries

costar adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
difícil adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
duro adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
tranca adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Swahili

1 entries

-gumu adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Swedish

2 entries

besvärlig adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
svår adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Tagalog

1 entries

mahirap adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Tajik

1 entries

мушкил adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Tamil

1 entries

கடினம் adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Telugu

1 entries

కఠోర adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Tetum

1 entries

susar adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Thai

1 entries

ยาก adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Tocharian B

2 entries

waimene adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
āmāskai adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Tongan

1 entries

faingataʻa adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Turkish

3 entries

kıyın adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
zor adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
çetin adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Ukrainian

1 entries

складни́й adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Urdu

2 entries

مشکل adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
کٹھن adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Vietnamese

1 entries

khó adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Walloon

2 entries

deur adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
målåjhey adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Welsh

2 entries

anodd adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
caled adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Yiddish

2 entries

האַרב adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)
שווער adj (requiring a lot of effort to do or understand)

Sample sentences

67 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

Life is hard, but I am harder.

Source: tatoeba (1477)

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.

Source: tatoeba (1918)

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse.

Source: tatoeba (2406)

You work as hard as he did at your age.

Source: tatoeba (15848)

Showing 4 of 67 available sentences.

Common questions

What are the closest synonyms for "hard"?

Closest matches include difficult, tough, about, absolute, abstruse.

How is "demanding" different from "hard"?

'Demanding' shifts focus to what's required of you, a demanding job drains your energy and attention relentlessly.

How should I check whether a synonym fits "hard"?

Compare the replacement against real sentence context. This entry includes sample sentences so you can check tone, grammar, and meaning before swapping words.

More for "hard"

Meaning

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