different between difficult vs labyrinthine

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)

  1. 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.
  2. (often of a person, or a horse, etc) Hard to manage, uncooperative, troublesome.
  3. (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)

  1. (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

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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labyrinthine

English

Etymology

From labyrinth +? -ine.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /læb.????n.??n/, /læb.????n.?in/, /læb.????n.?a?n/
  • ,

Adjective

labyrinthine (comparative more labyrinthine, superlative most labyrinthine)

  1. Physically resembling a labyrinth; with the qualities of a maze.
    • 1996, Steen L. Jensen, H. Gregerson. M. H. Shokouh-Amin, F. G. Moody, (eds.), Essentials of Experimental Surgery: Gastroenterology, page 27/4
      In the pyloric canal, muscular ridges are more fixed than elsewhere and produce quite a labyrinthine surface.
    • 2011, Lincoln Child, Deep Storm, page 185
      Crane trotted along the labyrinthine corridors of deck 3, accompanied by a young marine with close-cropped blond hair.
  2. (anatomy) Relating to the labyrinth of the ear
  3. (figuratively) Convoluted, baffling, confusing, perplexing.
    • 2000, Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, page 51
      Any attempt to answer that question would carry us into the labyrinthine corridors of Jefferson's famously elusive mind.
    • 2005, Michael W. Riley, "Plato's Cratylus: Argument, form, and structure", page 103
      By coupling "essence" with "name" within a series of contraposed pairs of names, Socrates indicates the point to which he thinks his labyrinthine argument has led so far in the Cratylus.

Synonyms

  • (resembling a labyrinth): labyrinthal, labyrinthial, labyrinthian, labyrinthic, labyrinthical, labyrinthiform
  • (twisting, convoluted): baffling, confusing, convoluted

Related terms

Translations

labyrinthine From the web:

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