different between paradoxical vs difficult
paradoxical
English
Etymology
paradox +? -ical
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /?pæ???d?ks?k?l/
- (General American) IPA(key): /?p????d??ks?k?l/
- Hyphenation: pa?ra?dox?ic?al
Adjective
paradoxical (comparative more paradoxical, superlative most paradoxical)
- Having self-contradictory properties.
- 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, book II, ch 2
- It is the ambiguity of language only which can make this proposition appear either doubtful or paradoxical. When properly explained and understood, it is almost self-evident.
- 1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book 2, ch 4
- It sounds paradoxical, but I am inclined to think that the weakness and insanity of the curate warned me, braced me, and kept me a sane man.
- 1933, H. P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, Out of the Aeons
- It was tightly fitted with a cap of the same substance, and bore engraved figurings of an evidently decorative and possibly symbolic nature - conventional designs which seemed to follow a peculiarly alien, paradoxical, and doubtfully describable system of geometry.
- 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, book II, ch 2
Synonyms
- (having self-contradictory properties): oxymoronic, self-contradictory
Antonyms
- (having self-contradictory properties): self-consistent, self-evident
Related terms
- paradox
- paradoxicality
- paradoxically
Translations
paradoxical From the web:
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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.
difficult From the web:
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