different between difficult vs simples

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

See simple. As an interjection, “Simples!”, a humorous alteration of “Simple!”, was popularised as the broken-English catchphrase of a meerkat character in a TV advertisement for price comparison website comparethemarket.com.

Pronunciation

Interjection

simples

1. (Britain, slang, humorous) Indicating that something is easy to do or to understand.
   • 2009 April 14, "jamie powell" (username), "Re: Satellite dish acquires wrong 'bird'", in uk.tech.digital-tv, Usenet:

     There is no potential for takeover of the state of Pakistan by a rag-tag bunch of trumped-up nobodies with battered guns, and therefore no threat to the west. simples!

   • 2010 March 25, Mike Jones, "Re: And Jeremiah The Prophet Said:", in alt.talk.creationism and other newsgroups, Usenet:

     So you claim. So, put whatcha got on the table, or STFU. ¶ Simples.

   • 2010 August 10, "AC" (username), "Re: HD coverage of the Nascar Race and Indy car races makes the F1 coverage look like Crap", in rec.autos.sport.f1, Usenet:

     Look, the vast majority of F1 viewers don't have HD TV. There for the numbers don't add up. When they do, you will have your HD TV. Simples.

   • 2013 August 4, Matthew Bell, "It's a very good 17 days to bury bad news" in The Independent (London):

     Controversial plans to replace appointed peers with elected senators, longed for by the Lib Dems, were seemingly given a new berth among the leftovers of Sam Cam's veg box. Simples!

   • 2016 July 4, John Crace, "Up really is down on Mummy Leadsom's amazing journey", in The Guardian (London):

     Most things will go through on the nod. Simples. Everything will be fixed by Christmas.

Noun

simples

1. plural of simple

Verb

simples

1. Third-person singular simple present indicative form of simple

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /?sim.pl?s/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /?sim.ples/

Adjective

simples

1. plural of simple

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??pl/

Adjective

simples

1. plural of simple

Noun

simples m

1. plural of simple

German

Pronunciation

Adjective

simples

1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative neuter singular of simpel

Mirandese

Adjective

simples m or f (plural simples)

1. simple

Portuguese

Etymology

From Old Portuguese simplez, from Latin simplex.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /?s?.pl??/
• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?s?.plis/, [?s???????.pl??s?]
• Hyphenation: sim?ples

Adjective

simples (plural simples, comparable)

1. simple

Derived terms

Spanish

Adjective

simples m pl or f pl

1. plural of simple