Webster's English Dictionary

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difficulty

dif.fi.cul.ty \-.k*l-te-, -k*l-\ n [ME difficulte, fr. L difficultas, 
   irreg. fr. difficilis] 1: the quality or state of being difficult  2: 
   something difficult : IMPEDIMENT  3: OBJECTION  4: embarrassment of affairs 
   lies to any condition or task almost beyond one's ability to deal with and 
   requiring skill, perseverance, and patience to surmount or solve; HARDSHIP 
   stresses suffering, toil or privation without necessarily implying any 
   effort to overcome or patience in enduring; RIGOR suggests a hardship 
   necessarily imposed upon one (as by an austere religion, a trying climate, 
   an exacting undertaking, an oppressive government); VICISSITUDE applies to 
   a difficulty or hardship incident to life or a career or course of action 
   and usu. beyond one's control SYN syn HARDSHIP, RIGOR, VICISSITUDE: 
   DIFFICULTY app