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ARDUOUS - 4 dictionary results

ar⋅du⋅ous

  [ahr-joo-uhs or, especially Brit., ahr-dyoo-]
Use ARDUOUS in a Sentence
–adjective
1. requiring great exertion; laborious; difficult: an arduous undertaking.
2. requiring or using much energy and vigor; strenuous: making an arduous effort.
3. hard to climb; steep: an arduous path up the hill.
4. hard to endure; full of hardships; severe: an arduous winter.
Origin:
1530–40; < L arduus erect, steep, laborious; see -ous

Related forms:
ar⋅du⋅ous⋅ly, adverb
ar⋅du⋅ous⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. hard, toilsome, onerous, wearisome, burdensome, exhausting.

Antonyms:
1. easy.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ar·du·ous   (är'jōō-əs)   
adj.  
  1. Demanding great effort or labor; difficult: "the arduous work of preparing a Dictionary of the English Language" (Thomas Macaulay).
  2. Testing severely the powers of endurance; strenuous: a long, arduous, and exhausting war.
  3. Hard to traverse, climb, or surmount. See Synonyms at burdensome, hard.

[From Latin arduus, high, steep.]
ar'du·ous·ly adv., ar'du·ous·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Arduous

Ar"du*ous\ (?; 135), a. [L. arduus steep, high; akin to Ir. ard high, height.]

1. Steep and lofty, in a literal sense; hard to climb.

Those arduous paths they trod. --Pope.

2. Attended with great labor, like the ascending of acclivities; difficult; laborious; as, an arduous employment, task, or enterprise.

Syn: Difficult; trying; laborious; painful; exhausting.

Usage: Arduous, Hard, Difficult. Hard is simpler, blunter, and more general in sense than difficult; as, a hard duty to perform, hard work, a hard task, one which requires much bodily effort and perseverance to do. Difficult commonly implies more skill and sagacity than hard, as when there is disproportion between the means and the end. A work may be hard but not difficult. We call a thing arduous when it requires strenuous and persevering exertion, like that of one who is climbing a precipice; as, an arduous task, an arduous duty. "It is often difficult to control our feelings; it is still harder to subdue our will; but it is an arduous undertaking to control the unruly and contending will of others."
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : ARDUOUS
Spanish: arduo,
German: mühselig,
Japanese: 骨の折れる
More Translations »

arduous 
1538, "high, steep, difficult to climb," from L. arduus "high, steep," from PIE base *eredh- "to grow, high" (cf. O.Ir. ard "high"). Metaphoric extension to "difficult" first attested 1713.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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