c. 1400, "not easy, requiring or dependent on effort; troublesome, arduous," apparently an unetymological back-formation from difficulty. French has difficile, Latin difficilis. Of persons, "hard to please," from 1580s. Related: Difficultly.
a difficult task
nesting places on the cliffs are difficult of access
difficult times
a difficult child
difference
different
differential
differentiate
differentiation
difficult
difficulty
diffidence
diffident
diffract
diffraction
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