different between difficult vs dismal
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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dismal
English
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman dismal, from Old French (li) dis mals ("(the) bad days"), from Medieval Latin di?s (“day”) m?l? (“bad”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?d?zm?l/
- Rhymes: -?zm?l
Adjective
dismal (comparative more dismal, superlative most dismal)
- Disastrous, calamitous
- Disappointingly inadequate.
- Causing despair; gloomy and bleak.
- Depressing, dreary, cheerless.
Usage notes
- Nouns to which "dismal" is often applied: failure, performance, state, record, place, result, scene, season, year, economy, future, fate, weather, news, condition, history.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:cheerless
Derived terms
- dismal science
Translations
Anagrams
- almids
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