| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, taxing |
| Synonyms: | arduous, burdensome, demanding, exacting, grievous, hard, harsh, onerous, oppressive, rigorous, severe, stiff, strict, stringent, superincumbent, tough, weighty |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile, unpressured |
| Main Entry: | grueling |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, taxing |
| Synonyms: | arduous, backbreaking, brutal, chastening, crushing, demanding, excruciating, exhausting, fatiguing, fierce, grinding, hairy*, hard, harsh, heavy*, laborious, punishing, racking, severe, stiff, strenuous, tiring, torturous, trying |
| Notes: | grueling means characterized by physical effort to the point of exhaustion; gruesome means shockingly repellent, inspiring horror |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile |
| Main Entry: | hard |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, exhausting |
| Synonyms: | Herculean, arduous, backbreaking, bothersome, burdensome, complicated, demanding, difficile, distressing, effortful, exacting, fatiguing, formidable, grinding, hairy*, heavy*, intricate, involved, irksome, knotty, labored, laborious, mean, merciless, murder, onerous, operose, rigorous, rough, rugged, scabrous, serious, severe, slavish, sticky, strenuous, terrible, tiring, toilful, toilsome, tough, troublesome, unsparing, uphill battle, uphill, wearing, wearisome, wearying |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile, mild, simple |
| Main Entry: | hypercritical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | captious |
| Synonyms: | carping, caviling, censorious, critical, demanding, faultfinding, finicky, fussy, hair-splitting, hard to please, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, persnickety |
| Main Entry: | impatient |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | unable, unwilling to wait |
| Synonyms: | abrupt, agog, antsy, anxious, appetent, ardent, athirst, avid, breathless, brusque, chafing, choleric, curt, demanding, dying to, eager, edgy, feverish, fretful, hasty, having short fuse, headlong, hot under collar, hot-tempered, impetuous, indignant, intolerant, irascible, irritable, itchy, keen, on pins and needles, quick-tempered, racing one's motor, restless, ripe*, snappy, straining, sudden, testy, thirsty, unforbearing, unindulgent, vehement, violent |
| Antonyms: | controlled, easy-going, enduring, forbearing, laid-back, patient, tolerant, waiting, willing |
| Main Entry: | insatiable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | voracious, wanting |
| Synonyms: | clamorous, crying, demanding, desiring, exigent, gluttonous, greedy, importunate, insatiate, insistent, intemperate, pressing, quenchless, rapacious, ravenous, unappeasable, unquenchable, unsatisfiable, unsatisfied, urgent, yearning |
| Antonyms: | fulfilled, full, pleased, satiable, satisfied |
| Main Entry: | intensive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | exhaustive |
| Synonyms: | accelerated, all-out, complete, comprehensive, concentrated, deep, demanding, fast, hard, in-depth, out-and-out, profound, radical, severe, speeded-up, thorough, thoroughgoing |
| Notes: | emotions are intense while sustained application or attention is intensive; intense arises from within and intensive comes from outside (it is imposed or assumed) |
| Antonyms: | incomplete, incomprehensive, superficial, surface |
| Main Entry: | jealous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | desirous; wary |
| Synonyms: | anxious, apprehensive, attentive, begrudging, covetous, demanding, doubting, emulous, envious, envying, grabby, grasping, green-eyed, grudging, guarded, intolerant, invidious, jaundiced, mistrustful, monopolizing, possessive, possessory, protective, questioning, resentful, rival, skeptical, solicitous, suspicious, vigilant, watchful, zealous |
| Notes: | jealous means envious or fearful of being replaced by a rival; zealous means marked by active interest and enthusiasm |
| Antonyms: | confident, content, satisfied, trusting, unresentful |
| Main Entry: | onerous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult; requiring hard labor |
| Synonyms: | arduous, austere, backbreaking, burdensome, crushing, cumbersome, demanding, difficult, distressing, embittering, exacting, excessive, exhausting, exigent, fatiguing, formidable, galling, grave, grinding, grueling, hard*, harsh, headache, heavy*, intolerable, irksome, laborious, merciless, oppressive, overpowering, overtaxing, painful, plodding, ponderous, pressing, responsible, rigorous, serious, severe, strenuous, taxing, tiresome, tiring, toilsome, troublesome, vexatious, weighty |
| Antonyms: | common, easy, light, trivial |