hard

hard is a 4-letter English word with 42 senses as adverb, transitive verb, noun, and adjective in the JumbleFix dictionary. One common meaning is: Not easily penetrated, cut, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; firm; solid; compact; -- applied to material bodies, and opposed to soft; as, hard wood; hard flesh; a hard apple. Face value is 8 in Scrabble and 7 in Words With Friends. Use the entries below when you need a playable sense, a nearby word, or another arrangement of the same letters.

4 letters · Scrabble 8 · Words With Friends 7 · 42 senses

Definitions

1. superlative. Not easily penetrated, cut, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; firm; solid; compact; -- applied to material bodies, and opposed to soft; as, hard wood; hard flesh; a hard apple.
2. superlative. Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem.
3. superlative. Difficult to accomplish; full of obstacles; laborious; fatiguing; arduous; as, a hard task; a disease hard to cure.
4. superlative. Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
5. superlative. Difficult to bear or endure; not easy to put up with or consent to; hence, severe; rigorous; oppressive; distressing; unjust; grasping; as, a hard lot; hard times; hard fare; a hard winter; hard conditions or terms.
6. superlative. Difficult to please or influence; stern; unyielding; obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel; as, a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character.
7. superlative. Not easy or agreeable to the taste; stiff; rigid; ungraceful; repelling; as, a hard style.
8. superlative. Rough; acid; sour, as liquors; as, hard cider.
9. superlative. Abrupt or explosive in utterance; not aspirated, sibilated, or pronounced with a gradual change of the organs from one position to another; -- said of certain consonants, as c in came, and g in go, as distinguished from the same letters in center, general, etc.
10. superlative. Wanting softness or smoothness of utterance; harsh; as, a hard tone.
11. superlative. Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
12. superlative. Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in the coloring or light and shade.
13. adverb. With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly.
14. adverb. With difficulty; as, the vehicle moves hard.
15. adverb. Uneasily; vexatiously; slowly.
16. adverb. So as to raise difficulties.
17. adverb. With tension or strain of the powers; violently; with force; tempestuously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically; as, to press, to blow, to rain hard; hence, rapidly; as, to run hard.
18. adverb. Close or near.
19. transitive verb. To harden; to make hard.
20. noun. A ford or passage across a river or swamp.
21. adjective. not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure

    "a difficult task"

    "nesting places on the cliffs are difficult of access"

    Synonyms: difficult

22. adjective. characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort

    "worked their arduous way up the mining valley"

    "a grueling campaign"

    Synonyms: arduous, backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome

23. adjective. dried out

    "hard dry rolls left over from the day before"

24. adjective. unfortunate or hard to bear

    "had hard luck"

    "a tough break"

    Synonyms: tough

25. adjective. resisting weight or pressure
26. adjective. dispassionate

    "took a hard look"

    "a hard bargainer"

27. adjective. (of speech sounds); produced with the back of the tongue raised toward or touching the velum

    "Russian distinguished between hard consonants and palatalized or soft consonants"

28. adjective. (of light) transmitted directly from a pointed light source

    Synonyms: concentrated

29. adjective. being distilled rather than fermented; having a high alcoholic content

    "hard liquor"

    Synonyms: strong

30. adjective. given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors

    "a hard drinker"

    Synonyms: heavy, intemperate

31. adjective. produced without vibration of the vocal cords

    "unvoiced consonants such as `p' and `k' and `s'"

    Synonyms: surd, unvoiced, voiceless

32. adjective. very strong or vigorous

    "strong winds"

    "a hard left to the chin"

    Synonyms: knockout, severe

33. adverb. with effort or force or vigor

    "the team played hard"

    "worked hard all day"

34. adverb. to the full extent possible; all the way

    "hard alee"

    "the ship went hard astern"

35. adverb. slowly and with difficulty

    "prejudices die hard"

36. adverb. causing great damage or hardship

    "industries hit hard by the depression"

    "she was severely affected by the bank's failure"

    Synonyms: severely

37. adverb. with firmness

    "held hard to the railing"

    Synonyms: firmly

38. adverb. earnestly or intently

    "thought hard about it"

    "stared hard at the accused"

39. adverb. with pain or distress or bitterness

    "he took the rejection very hard"

40. adverb. very near or close in space or time

    "it stands hard by the railroad tracks"

    "they were hard on his heels"

41. adverb. into a solid condition

    "concrete that sets hard within a few hours"

42. adverb. indulging excessively

    "he drank heavily"

    Synonyms: heavily, intemperately

Synonyms

difficult, arduous, backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, heavy, laborious, operose, punishing, toilsome, tough, concentrated, strong, intemperate, surd, unvoiced, voiceless, knockout, severe, severely, firmly, heavily, intemperately

Common word forms

hards, harden, harder, hardly, hardest, harding, hardness

Words from these letters

If you are holding these tiles, the unscrambler for HARD lists every valid word you can make from the same letters, including shorter plays.