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challenging

[chal-in-jing]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

offering a challenge; testing one's ability, endurance, etc: a challenging course; a challenging game.

stimulating, interesting, and thought-provoking: a challenging suggestion.

provocative; intriguing: a challenging smile.

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English, as gerund; 1835–45 for def. 1; see challenge, -ing²

Related forms

chal·leng·ing·ly, adverb

non·chal·leng·ing, adjective

un·chal·leng·ing, adjective

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Challenging is always a great word to know.

So is zedonk. Does it mean:

the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

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Example Sentences

Through flexible schedules, challenging courses and interactive learning, students achieve personal goals without putting.

The jobs that are about to be contracted out could prove more challenging still.

Photographing fireworks can be challenging but it's not impossible.

EXPAND

Through flexible schedules, challenging courses and interactive learning, students achieve personal goals without putting.

The jobs that are about to be contracted out could prove more challenging still.

Photographing fireworks can be challenging but it's not impossible.

If you find relationships challenging to cultivate and maintain, then you are in good company.

Not surprisingly, something so challenging and so beyond our experience opened up all kinds of unusual avenues of discourse.

And the task is even more challenging when you're also trying to maintain privacy and create serenity in a bustling urban area.

If the official's call is upheld, the game resumes where it was, and the challenging team is docked a timeout.

Supporters say the policy offers an incentive to students to take more challenging.

Hence the contorted spectacle of a party preparing for power at a time when the markets are challenging its every orthodoxy.

Making matters more challenging are the area's large seasonal fluctuations in precipitation that affect climate and land use.

Parsing the origins and early history of dinosaurs is a challenging task.

Garden remodels can be especially challenging when you have to work around existing fixtures.

While it's relatively simple for a computer to sort nouns from verbs, the nuances of language are slightly more challenging.

Academe is their first choice, but the faculty job market is challenging and they are worried about finding a position.

Complex fractures, though-those that involve bones shattered into fragments-are more challenging.

What makes gene therapy so promising also makes it extremely challenging.

Fitting a contact lens with circuitry is challenging.

Keeping even the smallest ponds clear and free of algae can be challenging.

As you go, the game moves faster and provides more challenging problems for you to solve on the fly.

Antiprotons, though, are altogether more challenging to create than positrons.

Just asking people to think about or priming their prior knowledge without explicitly challenging it was not enough.

As teachers they were challenging and really committed to their work.

Plants on slopes are often challenging to irrigate, since water can run downhill faster than it can seep into the root zone.

These are challenging times for defense contractors.

Captive breeding of the bluefin could save the species, but the effort will be challenging.

Sixty-three crew members of men and women had to have challenging situations.

Hike clockwise to get the challenging part?a short, fairly steep climb?over with first.

The ergonomics of text entry will especially be challenging on a device that size.

But finding a disorder that can account for those traits has proved challenging.

His laugh is robust and warm, and his mind is quick and can be challenging.

He scouts south of the border, the best place to find plants tough enough for his challenging desert climate.

Sounds simple enough, but the huge distances involved have made simulations challenging.

Perhaps it would have been more challenging if one player had been selected to work against the others.

Installing some elements proved especially challenging.

It has been a long time i haven't been projected into such an adventurous and challenging atmosphere.

There is no way to overstate how exhausting and challenging field research is.

Regulating the industry will be challenging because the financiers serve litigants with diverse needs and interests.

He/She will be treated as a member of the multimedia staff and have creative input on challenging projects.

They don't eat during this challenging time and may lose hundreds of pounds.

Monitoring voice communications has grown more technically challenging in recent years, requiring more simultaneous wiretaps.

Yet it is still fun and challenging enough for mixed groups and more experienced gamers.

It is a challenging but a wonderful undertaking to be able to unravel and write your own history.

But in truth, it's a grueling, intellectually challenging game.

Years of repression have stifled any opposition capable of challenging him successfully.

The question has been whether early humans and bears were challenging one another for food and shelter.

He was more interested in pleasing than in challenging his public.

However, the more intellectually challenging side of our argument has received little attention:.

It was still a man's world, in which being a woman was never more challenging than on the battlefield.

It is when they start challenging norms and agitating for legal rights that the trouble typically starts.

Download this challenging photo hunt game to your iPhone.

The complex life cycle of the parasite makes it challenging to know the best way to create an effective vaccine.

Their founders also tend to be rebellious types who enjoy challenging authority.

Specifically, people remember things better and longer if they are given tests so challenging that they are bound to fail.

Thin-skinned, sensitive to challenging conditions, and highly susceptible to mildew.

Challenging him, however, is turning out to be a different matter.

To avoid damaging the site's wetlands and other natural features, he designed challenging narrow fairways on many of the holes.

In addition to the challenging weather, researchers have to watch out for polar bears.

Tough xeric non-natives such as lantana and bottle-brush also stand up to the area's challenging conditions.

Now a married gay couple is challenging the law in court.

Trying to make sense of all that's going on is challenging even for the experts.

These areas are challenging to clean--crews can't burn off the oil the way they can when the oil is on the open water's surface.

But getting botanists to agree on a single standard has been challenging because of the genetic diversity of plants.

Many will find that, having worked hard for their wealth, the job of disposing of it is equally challenging.

Suggest that as they read they think about the qualities needed for her challenging job.

These next questions are more challenging and involve a slight twist in the rules of the game.

More challenging still may be a shift to cheaper methods of communication, such as e-mail.

But their work can be challenging and often dangerous.

More challenging will be pursuading farmers that they need to spend their money to help fight global warming.

But rising countries and growing threats are challenging their.

The mammoth-ivory flutes would have been especially challenging to make, the team said.

So this reduction in data dimensionality to biology or to medicine is really a key and challenging problem.

Pebble-bed reactors pose some challenging design problems.

If you want a more realistic or challenging adventure then ignorance of the ending is better.

Data fusion is challenging because databases are riddled with errors and meaningless coincidences.

Parents and kids will have fun learning about geography together with this challenging electronic game.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a call or summons to engage in any contest, as of skill, strength, etc.

something that by its nature or character serves as a call to battle, contest, special effort, etc.: Space exploration offers a challenge to humankind.

a call to fight, as a battle, a duel, etc.

a demand to explain, justify, etc.: a challenge to the treasurer to itemize expenditures.

difficulty in a job or undertaking that is stimulating to one engaged in it.

EXPAND

Military. the demand of a sentry for identification or a countersign.

Law. a formal objection to the qualifications of a particular juror, to his or her serving, or to the legality of an entire jury. Compare peremptory challenge.

the assertion that a vote is invalid or that a voter is not legally qualified.

Biology. the process of inducing or assessing physiological or immunological activity by exposing an organism to a specific substance.

10.

Hunting. the crying of a hound on finding a scent.

COLLAPSE

verb (used with object)

11.

to summon to a contest of skill, strength, etc.

12.

to take exception to; call in question: to challenge the wisdom of a procedure.

13.

to demand as something due or rightful.

14.

Military. to halt and demand identification or countersign from.

15.

Law. to take formal exception to (a juror or jury).

EXPAND

16.

to have a claim to; invite; arouse; stimulate: a matter which challenges attention.

17.

to assert that (a vote) is invalid.

18.

to assert that (a voter) is not qualified to vote.

19.

to expose an organism to a specific substance in order to assess its physiological or immunological activity.

20.

Archaic. to lay claim to.

COLLAPSE

verb (used without object)

21.

to make or issue a challenge.

22.

Hunting. (of hounds) to cry or give tongue on picking up the scent.

adjective

23.

donated or given by a private, corporate, or government benefactor on condition that the recipient raise an additional specified amount from the public: a challenge grant.

Origin:
1175–1225; Middle English chalenge < Old French, variant of chalonge < Latin calumnia calumny

Related forms

chal·lenge·a·ble, adjective

pre·chal·lenge, verb (used with object), -lenged, -leng·ing.

re·chal·lenge, verb (used with object), -lenged, -leng·ing.

un·chal·lenge·a·ble, adjective

un·chal·lenge·a·b·ly, adverb

Synonyms
11. dare, bid, invite. 12. question, impute, doubt.

Link To challenging

Collins

World English Dictionary

challenging (ˈtʃælɪndʒɪŋ)

—*adj*
	demanding or stimulating: a challenging new job

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

challenge

1292, from O.Fr. chalenge "accusation, claim, dispute," from L. calumnia "trickery" (see calumny). Accusatory connotations died out 17c. Meaning "a calling to fight" is from 1530. Challenged as a euphemism for "disabled" dates from 1985.

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"Every other evening around six o'clock he left home and dying dawn saw him hustling home around the lake where the challenging sun flung a flaming sword from east to west across the trembling water."

-Zora Neale Hurston

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