Difficult in Different Languages
Discover 'Difficult' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Difficult
Afrikaans moeilik | ||
Albanian e vështirë | ||
Amharic አስቸጋሪ | ||
Arabic صعب | ||
Armenian դժվար | ||
Assamese কঠিন | ||
Aymara ch'ama | ||
Azerbaijani çətindir | ||
Bambara gɛlɛnman | ||
Basque zaila | ||
Belarusian складана | ||
Bengali কঠিন | ||
Bhojpuri अलटाह | ||
Bosnian teško | ||
Bulgarian трудно | ||
Catalan difícil | ||
Cebuano lisod | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 难 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 難 | ||
Corsican difficiule | ||
Croatian teško | ||
Czech obtížný | ||
Danish svært | ||
Dhivehi އުދަނގޫ | ||
Dogri औक्खा | ||
Dutch moeilijk | ||
English difficult | ||
Esperanto malfacila | ||
Estonian raske | ||
Ewe sesẽ | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) mahirap | ||
Finnish vaikea | ||
French difficile | ||
Frisian dreech | ||
Galician difícil | ||
Georgian რთულია | ||
German schwer | ||
Greek δύσκολος | ||
Guarani hasy | ||
Gujarati મુશ્કેલ | ||
Haitian Creole difisil | ||
Hausa wuya | ||
Hawaiian paʻakikī | ||
Hebrew קָשֶׁה | ||
Hindi कठिन | ||
Hmong nyuaj | ||
Hungarian nehéz | ||
Icelandic erfitt | ||
Igbo siri ike | ||
Ilocano narigat | ||
Indonesian sulit | ||
Irish deacair | ||
Italian difficile | ||
Japanese 難しい | ||
Javanese angel | ||
Kannada ಕಷ್ಟ | ||
Kazakh қиын | ||
Khmer ពិបាក | ||
Kinyarwanda biragoye | ||
Konkani कठीण | ||
Korean 어려운 | ||
Krio nɔ kin izi | ||
Kurdish asteng | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) سەخت | ||
Kyrgyz кыйын | ||
Lao ຫຍຸ້ງຍາກ | ||
Latin difficilis | ||
Latvian grūti | ||
Lingala mpasi | ||
Lithuanian sunku | ||
Luganda okukaluba | ||
Luxembourgish schwéier | ||
Macedonian тешко | ||
Maithili कठिन | ||
Malagasy sarotra | ||
Malay sukar | ||
Malayalam ബുദ്ധിമുട്ടുള്ള | ||
Maltese diffiċli | ||
Maori uaua | ||
Marathi कठीण | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯑꯔꯨꯕ | ||
Mizo harsa | ||
Mongolian хэцүү | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ခက်ခဲသည် | ||
Nepali गाह्रो | ||
Norwegian vanskelig | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) zovuta | ||
Odia (Oriya) କଷ୍ଟକର | | ||
Oromo rakkisaa | ||
Pashto مشکل | ||
Persian دشوار | ||
Polish trudny | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) difícil | ||
Punjabi ਮੁਸ਼ਕਲ | ||
Quechua sasachakuy | ||
Romanian dificil | ||
Russian трудно | ||
Samoan faigata | ||
Sanskrit कठिनम् | ||
Scots Gaelic duilich | ||
Sepedi bothata | ||
Serbian тешко | ||
Sesotho thatafala | ||
Shona zvakaoma | ||
Sindhi مشڪل | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) දුෂ්කර | ||
Slovak ťažké | ||
Slovenian težko | ||
Somali adag | ||
Spanish difícil | ||
Sundanese sesah | ||
Swahili ngumu | ||
Swedish svår | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) mahirap | ||
Tajik мушкил | ||
Tamil கடினம் | ||
Tatar авыр | ||
Telugu కష్టం | ||
Thai ยาก | ||
Tigrinya ከቢድ | ||
Tsonga ku tika | ||
Turkish zor | ||
Turkmen kyn | ||
Twi (Akan) den | ||
Ukrainian важко | ||
Urdu مشکل | ||
Uyghur قىيىن | ||
Uzbek qiyin | ||
Vietnamese khó khăn | ||
Welsh anodd | ||
Xhosa kunzima | ||
Yiddish שווער | ||
Yoruba soro | ||
Zulu kunzima |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | "Moeilik" is derived from the Dutch word "moeilijk" meaning "difficult, troublesome, or hard to do" and is cognate with the English word "moiling" meaning "toiling, drudging, or labouring". |
| Albanian | The word 'vështirë' has two possible origins, meaning either 'weighty' or 'heavy' |
| Amharic | The word ብፍረስ (difficult) is derived from the verb ሄላ ፍቀጳፋ ቅሐቆፋ which means to be stuck |
| Arabic | The word "صعب" is also used to describe a steep or rugged path or a person with a strong character. |
| Armenian | While "դժվար" most commonly means "difficult" in Armenian, it can also mean "rare" or "difficult to find." |
| Azerbaijani | The word ''çətindir'' is derived from the Persian word ''cetin'', meaning ''strong'' or ''firm''. |
| Basque | The Basque word "zaila" can also mean "stubborn" or "obstinate". |
| Belarusian | The word "складана" in Belarusian is derived from the verb "складаць", meaning "to fold" or "to put together", and can also refer to something that is "complicated" or "intricate". |
| Bengali | "কঠিন" comes from the Sanskrit word "kaṭhina", meaning "hard", but it also carries the connotation of something being "uncomfortable" or "distasteful." |
| Bosnian | The word "teško" in Bosnian can also mean "heavy," "difficult to move," or "hard to bear." |
| Bulgarian | The word “трудно” in Bulgarian is derived from the Proto-Slavic root *trudъ (“hard work, difficulty”) and is related to the English words “trouble,” “travail,” “thrive,” “tribe,” “tribute,” “true,” “truce,” and “troop.” |
| Catalan | The Catalan word "difícil" is derived from the Latin word "difficilis" meaning 'full of difficulty'. |
| Cebuano | 'Lisod' may have come from the root word 'lusot', meaning 'to pass through' or 'to penetrate', with the negated prefix 'li-'. |
| Chinese (Simplified) | The character "难" derives from the pictograph of a woman with a child on her back, indicating hardship. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 難 originates as the representation of an adult hanging from a tree, a difficult feat. |
| Corsican | In Corsican, the word "difficiule" can also refer to "annoying" or "troublesome". |
| Croatian | In addition to meaning 'difficult', 'teško' also means 'heavy' or 'weighty'. |
| Czech | The Czech word "obtížný" is derived from the Old Church Slavonic word "obъtiščъni", meaning "burdened" or "oppressed". |
| Danish | The word "svært" derives from the Old Norse word "svartr," meaning "black" or "dark." |
| Dutch | The etymology of "moeilijk" in Dutch is rooted in the word "moete," which means "effort," emphasizing its laborious nature. |
| Esperanto | The Esperanto word "malfacila" is derived from the Latin words "male" (badly) and "facilis" (easy), and also has the alternate meaning of "hard to do" or "difficult." |
| Estonian | This word is of Baltic origin and is related to the Lithuanian word "r?ksti", which means "to be hard, firm". |
| Finnish | "Vaikea" also means "demanding, difficult to please, burdensome, hard to handle, complicated, intricate, complex, perplexing, puzzling, or mysterious." |
| French | The word 'difficile' is derived from the Latin word 'difficilis', which means 'hard to do' or 'troublesome', and also 'awkward', 'unfavorable', and 'hard to understand'. |
| Frisian | The word "dreech" comes from the Old Frisian word "dregghe", meaning "sad" or "bad weather". |
| Galician | The word "difícil" in Galician also refers to a specific type of musical composition based on a popular tune, similar to a "folía" or "foliada" |
| Georgian | The Georgian word "რთულია" (difficult) is derived from the Old Georgian word "რთულ" (difficult, complex), which is cognate with the Armenian word "արտուղ" (difficult) and the Ossetian word "æртæг" (difficult, heavy). |
| German | The word "schwer" is derived from the Middle High German word "swære" which also means "heavy". |
| Greek | The word "δύσκολος" comes from the Ancient Greek word "δυσ- ("bad") + κολος ("limb") and originally meant "crippled" or "lame" |
| Gujarati | मुश्किल (mushkil) originates from the Persian word مشكل (mushkil), which means 'doubtful' or 'suspicious', and is related to the Arabic word مشكل (mushkil), which means 'difficult' or 'laborious'. |
| Haitian Creole | Difisil (difficult) is probably derived from Old French "dificile" or Spanish "dificil", and not from French "difficile". |
| Hausa | The word "wuya" can also mean "trouble" or "annoyance" in Hausa. |
| Hawaiian | The Hawaiian word "paʻakikī" originally referred to a particular type of hard rock, but has come to be used figuratively to describe anything difficult. |
| Hebrew | The word 'קָשֶׁה' (difficult) has an additional meaning in Hebrew - hard, as in 'hard wood'. |
| Hindi | The word "कठिन" can also mean "hard" or "strong" in Hindi, and is related to the Sanskrit word "कटु" meaning "bitter" or "sharp." |
| Hmong | "Nyuaj" can also mean "hard to understand" or "difficult to solve." |
| Hungarian | Nehéz shares roots with the word |
| Icelandic | Erfitt shares the same root as afreitt, meaning "at ease" or "comfortable." |
| Igbo | The Igbo word "siri ike" not only means "difficult" but also implies a sense of impossibility or insurmountable challenges. |
| Indonesian | In some contexts, "sulit" can also mean "rare" or "scarce" |
| Irish | "Deacair," from Old Celtic "docaros", "bad, hard, unpleasant," is cognate to Welsh, Cornish & Breton forms meaning "bad." It's related to Proto-Indo-European "dus-", akin to Russian "dukh." It refers to something "morally difficult, not easily accomplished." |
| Italian | "Difficile" in Italian also means the anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium Clostridioides difficile. |
| Japanese | The word "難しい" can also mean "mysterious" or "intricate". |
| Javanese | The word "angel" in Javanese also means "embarrassed" or "shy". |
| Kannada | "ಕಷ್ಟ" (kaṣṭa) also refers to "suffering," "pain," "hardship," or "adversity" in Kannada. |
| Kazakh | "Қиын" also means "narrow" or "confined" in Kazakh. |
| Khmer | ពិបាក is derived from Sanskrit 'vibādha' (obstruction) referring to problems and obstacles that cause distress and hindrance. |
| Korean | "어려운" also means "unripe" or "unskillful". |
| Kurdish | The word "asteng" in Kurdish also means "narrow" or "tight". |
| Kyrgyz | Kyrgyz "кыйын" shares the same origin as the Turkish "kıvılcım" meaning "spark", suggesting a connection to the idea of difficulty being like a spark that ignites challenges or obstacles. |
| Latin | "Difficilis" also has a meaning similar to the English "disagreeable". |
| Latvian | The Latvian word "grūti" originates from the Proto-Indo-European root "*greu-," meaning "heavy," and is related to Old Prussian "grūsis" and the Lithuanian word "gražus." |
| Lithuanian | Cognate with the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱwen-g- “to suffer” (also found in Latin angor “anguish, distress” and Sanskrit shákrah “powerful”) |
| Luxembourgish | The etymology of "schwéier" is unknown, but it may be related to the Old High German word "swer","heavy". |
| Macedonian | "Тешко" can mean "difficult" or "heavy" in Macedonian, and is related to the word "тежина" (weight). |
| Malagasy | The word "sarotra" in Malagasy is derived from the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word "*saqat" meaning "difficult or heavy." |
| Malay | The word "sukar" is derived from the Sanskrit word "sukara" meaning "pig". |
| Maltese | "Diffiċli" can also mean "hard" in a physical sense, like difficulty opening a door. |
| Maori | The word "uaua" can also be used to describe something that is "difficult" or "challenging" in a physical or mental sense. |
| Marathi | The word "कठीण" (difficult) is derived from the Sanskrit word "कठिन" (hard, solid), which also means "harsh" or "severe" in Marathi. |
| Mongolian | "Хэцүү" also means "unlucky" or "bad luck" in Mongolian. |
| Nepali | गाह्रो is derived from the Sanskrit word 'घोर' ('horrible'). It can also refer to a 'deep ravine' or a 'precipice'. |
| Norwegian | Vanskelig is derived from the Old Norse |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | "Zovuta" can also mean "serious" or "important" in Nyanja. |
| Pashto | مشکل ('difficult') is cognate with the Persian word مشکل ('difficulty'), both deriving from the Arabic word مشقة ('hardship'). |
| Persian | "دشوار" (difficult) is derived from "دش" (bad) and "وار" (like), meaning "like bad". |
| Polish | The word "trudny" in Polish also contains the idea of "lasting a long time" or "difficult to endure". |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "difícil" comes from the Latin word "difficilis," meaning "not easy". In Portuguese, it can also mean "hard" or "tough". |
| Punjabi | "ਮੁਸ਼ਕਲ" is derived from the Sanskrit word "muṣka" meaning 'fist,' implying a tight or difficult situation analogous to that of a tightly clenched fist. |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "dificil" derives from the Latin "difficilis," meaning both "difficult" and "hard to handle." |
| Russian | The Russian word "трудно" is thought to be derived from the Proto-Slavic "trъdъ" meaning “hard” or “severe,” but also “expensive.” |
| Samoan | Faigata has the literal translation of “too good” |
| Scots Gaelic | The word 'duilich' originates from the Gaelic word 'do-fhaicil,' meaning 'not-easy'. |
| Serbian | The word "тешко" in Serbian can also mean "heavy" or "arduous" and is derived from the Proto-Slavic root *tęgъ. |
| Sesotho | The word 'thatafala' also translates to an expression of gratitude for a person who has assisted with a difficult matter. |
| Shona | The word "zvakaoma" in Shona has a complex etymology and can also mean "heavy" or "burdensome". |
| Sindhi | The word "مشڪل" in Sindhi also means "problem". |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The word 'දුෂ්කර' (duskara) is derived from Sanskrit and Pali and originally meant 'bad or evil action'. |
| Slovak | The word "ťažké" also means "heavy" in Slovak, reflecting the physical and mental effort involved in overcoming difficulty. |
| Slovenian | The Slovenian word "težko" derives from the Proto-Slavic root "*těžъkъ", meaning "heavy" or "hard". |
| Somali | The word "adag" can also refer to a "thick fog" or "difficulty" in Somali. |
| Spanish | The original meaning of "difícil" is not "difficult," but rather "not easy" or "requiring effort. |
| Sundanese | "Sesah" is also a Sundanese exclamation used to express annoyance or frustration. |
| Swahili | The word "ngumu" also means "hard" in the context of hardness or rigidity. |
| Swedish | "Svår" is a cognate of the English word "severe" and the German word "schwer". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The Tagalog word "mahirap" comes from the root word "hirap," which means "hardship" or "difficulty," and the prefix "ma-" which intensifies the meaning. |
| Tajik | The word "мушкил" in Tajik is also used to refer to a type of facial mole.} |
| Tamil | The word "கடினம்" (difficult) in Tamil also refers to "hardness" or "firmness" in the context of physical objects. |
| Telugu | The word 'కష్టం' can also refer to 'trouble', 'hardship', 'suffering', or 'pain'. |
| Thai | The Thai word "ยาก" ('difficult') comes from Khmer យក ('to take') and refers to something that requires effort or exertion. |
| Turkish | The word "zor" in Turkish also means "must" or "force". |
| Ukrainian | Meaning “hard to lift or carry” is also reflected in Polish word “ciężki,” with the same root and original meaning. |
| Urdu | The word "مشکل" in Urdu is derived from the Arabic word "مشکل" (mushkil), which means "difficult, hard, or complicated." |
| Uzbek | The word "qiyin" also means "heavy" or "serious" in Uzbek. |
| Vietnamese | Khó khăn is an onomatopoeia stemming from the word "khó" (dry) and "khăn" (towel), signifying a state of being "as dry as a towel". In certain contexts, it denotes a sense of "lacking" or "wanting" for something. |
| Welsh | While "anodd" mainly means "difficult" in Welsh, the word also means "wonderful" or implies "very". |
| Xhosa | The word "kunzima" is derived from the Xhosa word "kunzima", which means "heavy". It can also be used to describe something that is difficult or challenging. |
| Yiddish | In addition to its primary meaning of "difficult," "שווער" can also mean "heavy" or "serious" in Yiddish. |
| Yoruba | The Yoruba word "soro" can also refer to "matters" or "issues". |
| Zulu | The word "kunzima" derives from the root "nzi", meaning "hard" or "difficult", and is also related to the noun "inselele", meaning "trouble" or "hardship". |
| English | The word "difficult" originates from the Latin word "difficilis," meaning "hard to do or accomplish." |