| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult to understand, unclear |
| Synonyms: | affected, arduous, awkward, clumsy, contrived, effortful, forced, hard, heavy, inept, maladroit, operose, overdone, overwrought, ponderous, stiff, strained, strenuous, studied, toilsome, unnatural, uphill, weighty |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile, natural, relaxed |
| Main Entry: | arduous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, hard to endure |
| Synonyms: | backbreaking, burdensome, exhausting, fatiguing, formidable, grueling, harsh, heavy, labored, laborious, murder, no picnic, onerous, painful, punishing, rigorous, rough, severe, strenuous, taxing, tiring, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying, uphill |
| Antonyms: | easy, facile, motivating |
| Main Entry: | artificial |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | pretended; affected |
| Synonyms: | assumed, contrived, false, feigned, forced, hollow, insincere, labored, mannered, meretricious, phony*, put-on, spurious, theatrical, unnatural |
| Antonyms: | genuine, natural, unaffected, unpretentious |
| Main Entry: | contrived |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | overly planned |
| Synonyms: | affected, artificial, elaborate, fake, false, forced, labored, manipulated, overdone, phony, recherché, strained, unnatural, unspontaneous |
| Main Entry: | difficult |
| 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: | elaborate |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | intricate; involved |
| Synonyms: | busy, careful, complex, complicated, decorated, detailed, elegant, embellished, exact, extensive, extravagant, fancy, fussy, garnished, high tech, highly wrought, imposing, knotty, labored, labyrinthine, luxurious, many-faceted, minute, ornamented, ornate, ostentatious, overdone, overworked, painstaking, perfected, plush, posh, precise, prodigious, refined, showy, skillful, sophisticated, studied, thorough, with all the extras, with all the options, with bells and whistles |
| Antonyms: | general, normal, plain, regular, simple, uncomplicated, unelaborate, uninvolved, usual |
| Main Entry: | far-fetched |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hard to believe |
| Synonyms: | bizarre, doubtful, dubious, eccentric, fantastic, fishy, forced, hard to swallow, illogical, implausible, improbable, incoherent, inconsequential, incredible, labored, preposterous, queer, recondite, strained, strange, suspicious, unbelievable, unconvincing, unlikely, unnatural, unrealistic |
| Antonyms: | believable, natural, plausible, realistic |
| Main Entry: | forced |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | compulsory, strained |
| Synonyms: | affected, artificial, begrudging, binding, bound, coerced, coercive, compelled, conscripted, constrained, contrived, enforced, factitious, false, grudging, inflexible, insincere, involuntary, labored, mandatory, obligatory, peremptory, rigid, slave, stiff, stringent, unnatural, unwilling, wooden |
| Notes: | forcible indicates the use of brute force, forced means done involuntarily, and forceful suggests a potential for force |
| Antonyms: | noncompulsory, spontaneous, unforced, voluntary |
| Main Entry: | formidable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | difficult, overwhelming |
| Synonyms: | all-powerful, arduous, awesome, ballbuster, challenging, colossal, dismaying, effortful, great, hard, impressive, indomitable, intimidating, labored, laborious, mammoth, mighty, murder*, onerous, overpowering, powerful, puissant, rough go, rough*, staggering, strenuous, tall order, toilsome, tough proposition, tough*, tremendous, uphill |
| Antonyms: | easy, not hard, pleasant, trivial |