| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hard on someone; hard to do |
| Synonyms: | Gargantuan, Herculean, ambitious, arduous, backbreaker, bothersome, burdensome, challenging, crucial, demanding, difficile, easier said than done, effortful, exacting, formidable, galling, hard-won, heavy, immense, intricate, irritating, labored, laborious, no picnic, not easy, onerous, operose, painful, problem, problematic, prohibitive, rigid, severe, stiff, strenuous, titanic, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying, unyielding, uphill, upstream, wearisome |
| Antonyms: | calm, easy, free, manageable, plain, simple, uncomplicated |
| Main Entry: | difficult |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | unmanageable socially |
| Synonyms: | argumentative, bearish, boorish, dark, demanding, fastidious, finicky, fractious, fussy, grim, hard to please, impolite, intractable, irritable, oafish, obstreperous, perverse, picky, refractory, rigid, rude, tiresome, tough, troublesome, trying, unaccommodating, unamenable |
| Antonyms: | calm, friendly, sociable |
| Main Entry: | ambitious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | requiring great effort, ability |
| Synonyms: | arduous, bold, challenging, demanding, difficult, elaborate, energetic, exacting, formidable, grandiose, hard, impressive, industrious, lofty, pretentious, severe, strenuous, visionary |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile |
| Main Entry: | awkward |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | embarrassing |
| Synonyms: | compromising, delicate, difficult, embarrassed, ill at ease, inconvenient, inopportune, painful, perplexing, sticky*, thorny, ticklish, troublesome, trying, uncomfortable, unpleasant, untimely |
| Antonyms: | clever |
| Main Entry: | burdensome |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | troublesome |
| Synonyms: | carking, crushing, demanding, difficult, disturbing, exacting, exigent, heavy*, irksome, onerous, oppressive, superincumbent, taxing, tough, trying, wearing, wearying, weighty |
| Antonyms: | aiding, helpful, helping, relieving, unburdensome |
| Main Entry: | complicated |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, complex |
| Synonyms: | Byzantine, Daedalean, Gordian, abstruse, arduous, can of worms, convoluted, difficult, elaborate, entangled, fancy, gasser, hard, hi-tech, interlaced, intricate, involved, knotty, labyrinthine, mega factor, mixed, perplexing, problematic, puzzling, recondite, sophisticated, troublesome, various, wheels within wheels |
| Notes: | something complex may be well-organized and logically constructed as well as subtle and intricate, while a thing that is complicated will have something irregular, perverse, asymmetrical in addition to fundamental intricacy; complex is more formal and technical (a problem in mathematics is complex) while something like personal life can be complicated |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile, simple |
| Main Entry: | crabby/crabbed |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | in a bad mood |
| Synonyms: | acid, acrid, acrimonious, awkward, bad-tempered, blunt, brusque, captious, choleric, churlish, cranky*, cross, crotchety, crusty, cynical, difficult, dour, fretful, gloomy, glum, grouchy, harsh, huffy, ill-humored, ill-tempered, irascible, irritable, misanthropic, morose, nasty-tempered, peevish, perverse, petulant, prickly, saturnine, snappish, snappy, sour, splenetic, sulky, sullen, surly, tart, testy, tough, trying, unsociable |
| Antonyms: | happy |
| Main Entry: | crotchety |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | irritable, often due to old age |
| Synonyms: | awkward, bad-tempered, bearish, cantankerous, contrary, crabby, cranky, cross, cross-grained, crusty, curmudgeonly, difficult, disagreeable, eccentric, fractious, grouchy, grumpy, irritable, obstinate, obstreperous, odd, ornery*, peevish, queer, surly, testy, unusual, vinegary, waspish, waspy |
| Antonyms: | cheerful, happy, pleasant |
| Main Entry: | deep |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | abstract, complicated in meaning |
| Synonyms: | Delphic, Orphic, Sibylline, abstruse, acute, arcane, complex, concealed, difficult, discerning, esoteric, hard to understand, heavy*, hermetic, hidden, incisive, intricate, learned, mysterious, obscure, occult, penetrating, profound, recondite, sagacious, secret, serious, wise |
| Antonyms: | frivolous, ignorant, shallow, superficial, trivial, unintelligent |