difficult
/ˈdɪfɪkəlt/adjective
difficult is spelled D-I-F-F-I-C-U-L-T. The wrong spelling people search most is dificult: about 110 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 22 of all searches for the word. Difficult is an adjective meaning “Hard, not easy, requiring much effort”.
How many letters and syllables are in difficult?
| Letters | 9: D-I-F-F-I-C-U-L-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 117 times per million words; the 904th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, dificult, about 110 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell difficult?
Difficult is spelled D-I-F-F-I-C-U-L-T. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 15 of the searches for difficult in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is difficult?
Difficult appears 117 times per million words in written English, the 904th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce difficult?
- /ˈdɪfɪkəlt/
Difficult has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-difficult.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-difficult.wav, En-us-difficult.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of difficult
- more difficult comparative
- most difficult superlative
- difficults present, singular, he/she/it
- difficulting participle, present
- difficulted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does difficult mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Hard, not easy, requiring much effort.
difficult of accomplishment
- 2
Hard to manage, uncooperative, troublesome.
Stop being difficult and eat your broccoli–you know it's good for you.
- 3
obsoleteUnable or unwilling.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo make difficult, hinder; 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
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Difficult in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense hard, not easy:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does difficult come from?
From Middle English difficult (ca. 1400), a back-formation from difficulte (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”). The verb is from the adjective, partly after Middle French difficulter and its etymon Latin difficultō. Compare difficilitate, difficultate, and Italian difficoltare.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).