| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | horrifying |
| Synonyms: | appalling, astounding, atrocious, awful, baleful, bloodcurdling, creepy, dire, distressing, dreadful, eerie, formidable, frightful, ghastly, ghoulish, grievous, grim, grisly, gruesome, hair-raising, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrific, lurid, macabre, monstrous, morbid, overwhelming, redoubtable, shocking, shuddersome, sinister, strange, sublime, terrible, tremendous, unearthly, unspeakable |
| Notes: | someone may be fearful; someone or something may be fearsome |
| Antonyms: | good, nice, pleasant |
| Main Entry: | grim |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hopeless, horrible in manner, appearance |
| Synonyms: | austere, barbarous, bleak, cantankerous, churlish, crabbed, cruel, crusty, dogged, ferocious, fierce, forbidding, foreboding, formidable, frightful, funereal, ghastly, gloomy, glowering, glum, grisly, grouchy, gruesome, grumpy*, harsh, hideous, horrid, implacable, inexorable, intractable, merciless, morose, ominous, relentless, resolute, ruthless, scowling, severe, shocking, sinister, somber, sour, splenetic, stern, stubborn, sulky, sullen, surly, terrible, truculent, unrelenting, unyielding |
| Antonyms: | bright, cheerful, happy, hopeful, joyful, sunny |
| 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: | heavy |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, severe |
| Synonyms: | abstruse, acroamatic, arduous, boisterous, burdensome, complex, complicated, confused, effortful, esoteric, formidable, grave, grievous, hard, harsh, intolerable, knotty, labored, laborious, onerous, oppressive, profound, recondite, rough, serious, solemn, stormy, strenuous, tedious, tempestuous, toilsome, tough, troublesome, turbulent, vexatious, violent, wearisome, weighty, wild |
| Antonyms: | easy, inconsequential, insignificant, trivial, unimportant |
| Main Entry: | high |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | tall; at a great distance aloft |
| Synonyms: | aerial, alpine, altitudinous, big, colossal, elevated, eminent, flying, formidable, giant, gigantic, grand, great, high rise, high-reaching, hovering, huge, immense, large, lofty, long, sky-high, sky-scraping, soaring, steep, towering, tremendous, uplifted, upraised |
| Antonyms: | dwarfed, low, lowly, short, stunted |
| Main Entry: | knotty |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | troublesome |
| Synonyms: | Gordian, baffling, complex, complicated, difficult, effortful, elaborate, formidable, hard, intricate, involved, labyrinthine, mazy, mystifying, nodulous, perplexing, problematical, puzzling, ramified, reticular, rough, rugged, sophisticated, sticky*, terrible, thorny, tough, tricky, uphill |
| Antonyms: | simple, uncomplicated, untroublesome |
| Main Entry: | mean |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hostile, rude |
| Synonyms: | bad-tempered, callous, cantankerous, churlish, contemptible, dangerous, despicable, difficult, dirty*, disagreeable, dishonorable, down*, evil, formidable, hard, hard-nosed, ignoble, ill-tempered, infamous, knavish, liverish, lousy*, low-down and dirty, malicious, malign, nasty, perfidious, pesky, rotten, rough, rugged, scurrilous, shameless, sinking, snide, sour, the lowest, touch, treacherous, troublesome, ugly, unfriendly, unpleasant, unscrupulous, vexatious, vicious, vile |
| Notes: | the median is the halfway point, dividing a series of numbers in half - while a mean is the average of the sum of the series |
| Antonyms: | compassionate, kind, nice, noble, polite, sympathetic |
| 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 |
| Main Entry: | rugged |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, rigorous |
| Synonyms: | arduous, demanding, exacting, formidable, hairy*, hard, harsh, heavy sledding, heavy*, knotty, laborious, large order, mean, murder*, no picnic, operose, rough, stern, strenuous, taxing, tough, trying, uncompromising, uphill |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile |