different between difficult vs mixed

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.

English

Etymology

From mix, equivalent to mix +? -ed. Compare Middle English mixid (“mixed”, past participle), Old English miscode (“mixed”, preterite). More at mix.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?kst/
• Rhymes: -?kst

Verb

mixed

1. simple past tense and past participle of mix

Adjective

mixed (comparative more mixed, superlative most mixed)

1. Having two or more separate aspects.

   I get a very mixed feeling from this puzzling painting.

2. Not completely pure, tainted or adulterated.

   My joy was somewhat mixed when my partner said she was pregnant: it's a lot of responsibility.

3. Including both male(s) and female(s).

   The tennis match was mixed with a boy and a girl on each side.

   My son attends a mixed school, my daughter an all-girl grammar school.

4. Stemming from two or more races or breeds

   The benefit dog show has both mixed and single-breed competitions.

   Mixed blood can surprisingly produce inherited properties which neither parent showed

Synonyms

• (having two or more separate aspects): heterogeneous (See also Thesaurus:heterogeneous); (feelings) ambivalent, conflicted, equivocal
• (not pure): impure
• (including both males and females): co-ed, unsegregated
• (stemming from two or more races or breeds): hybrid, mongrel

Antonyms

• (having two or more separate aspects): homogeneous, unmixed; See also Thesaurus:homogeneous
• (not pure): pure
• (including both males and females): single-sex
• (stemming from two or more races or breeds): pedigree, pure, pureblooded, purebred

Derived terms

Related terms

• mixer
• mixture

Translations

Anagrams

• demix