different between difficult vs cryptic
difficult
English
Etymology
From Middle English difficult (ca. 1400), a back-formation from difficultee (whence modern difficulty), from Old French difficulté, from Latin difficultas, from difficul, older form of difficilis (“hard to do, difficult”), from dis- + facilis (“easy”); see difficile. Replaced native Middle English earveþ (“difficult, hard”), from Old English earfoþe (“difficult, laborious, full of hardship”), cognate to German Arbeit (“work”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?d?f?k?lt/
Adjective
difficult (comparative difficulter or more difficult, superlative difficultest or most difficult)
- Hard, not easy, requiring much effort.
- However, the difficult weather conditions will ensure Yunnan has plenty of freshwater.
- There is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide, strange, difficult world, alone.
- (often of a person, or a horse, etc) Hard to manage, uncooperative, troublesome.
- (obsolete) Unable or unwilling.
Usage notes
Difficult implies that considerable mental effort or physical skill is required, or that obstacles are to be overcome which call for sagacity and skill in the doer; as, a difficult task. Thus, "hard" is not always synonymous with difficult. Examples include a difficult operation in surgery and a difficult passage by an author (that is, a passage which is hard to understand).
Synonyms
- burdensome, cumbersome, hard
- see also Thesaurus:difficult
Derived terms
- difficultly
Translations
Verb
difficult (third-person singular simple present difficults, present participle difficulting, simple past and past participle difficulted)
- (obsolete, transitive) To make difficult; to impede; to perplex.
- August 9 1678, William Temple, letter to Joseph Williamson
- their Excellencies having desisted from their pretensions , which had difficulted the peace
- August 9 1678, William Temple, letter to Joseph Williamson
Further reading
- difficult in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- difficult in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
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cryptic
English
Alternative forms
- cryptick (obsolete)
Etymology
From Late Latin crypticus, from Ancient Greek ????????? (kruptikós), from ??????? (kruptós, “hidden”), from ?????? (krúpt?, “to hide”). Compare cryptology.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?k??pt?k/
Adjective
cryptic (comparative more cryptic, superlative most cryptic)
- Having hidden meaning.
- Mystified or of an obscure nature.
- Involving use of a code or cipher.
- Of a crossword, or a clue in such a crossword, using, in addition to definitions, wordplay such as anagrams, homophones and hidden words to indicate solutions.
- (zoology) Well camouflaged; having good camouflage.
- (zoology) Serving as camouflage.
- (biology, not comparable) Apparently identical, but actually genetically distinct.
- (zoology) Living in a cavity or small cave.
- Synonym: (less common) cryptozoic
- 1999, Rachel Wood, Reef Evolution, p. 95:
- Much of the Permian Capitan reef was strongly differentiated into open surface and cryptic communities.
Translations
Noun
cryptic (plural cryptics)
- (informal) A cryptic crossword.
- 2009, Bill Taylor, Building a crossword (in Toronto Star, 1 February 2009)
- This writer has been solving cryptics for 40 years and can usually crack Araucaria, though it might take a couple of days.
- 2009, Bill Taylor, Building a crossword (in Toronto Star, 1 February 2009)
Derived terms
- cryptically
- cryptogram
cryptic From the web:
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