Difficult crossword clue 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 letters

This curated list of answers for “Difficult” reflects consistent entries from completed crosswords where the same clue format was used. These aren’t guesses—they’re drawn from puzzles that have already been solved.

Likely Answers:

Synonyms and Definitions

TAXING

• Synonyms: assess, burdensome, onerous, task, tax

TRICKY

• Synonyms: catchy, crafty, cunning, dodgy, foxy, guileful, knavish, slick, slippery, sly, tricksy, wily

TOUGH

• Synonyms: bad, baffling, bully, elusive, goon, hard, hood, hoodlum, hooligan, knotty, problematic, problematical, punk, roughneck, rowdy, ruffian, ruffianly, rugged, street fighter, strong-armer, sturdy, thug, toughened, toughie, yob, yobbo, yobo

HARD

• Synonyms: arduous, backbreaking, concentrated, grueling, gruelling, heavy, intemperate, knockout, laborious, operose, punishing, severe, strong, surd, toilsome, tough, unvoiced, voiceless

SEVERE

• Synonyms: austere, dangerous, grave, grievous, life-threatening, serious, spartan, stark, stern, terrible, wicked

TRYING

• Synonyms: adjudicate, assay, attempt, essay, examine, hear, judge, nerve-racking, nerve-wracking, prove, render, sample, seek, strain, stress, stressful, taste, test, try, try on, try out

TESTING

• Synonyms: examination, quiz, screen

KNOTTY

• Synonyms: byzantine, convoluted, gnarled, gnarly, involved, knobbed, knotted, snarled, snarly, tangled, tortuous

THORNY

• Synonyms: barbed, barbellate, briary, briery, bristled, bristly, burred, burry, prickly, setaceous, setose, spiny

PERPLEXING

• Synonyms: amaze, baffle, beat, bewilder, complicate, confusing, dumbfound, flummox, get, gravel, mystify, nonplus, perplex, pose, puzzle, puzzling, stick, stupefy, vex

ROCKY

• Synonyms: bouldered, bouldery, bumpy, jolting, jolty, jumpy, rough, stony

STIFF

• Synonyms: besotted, blind drunk, blotto, buckram, cadaver, clay, cockeyed, corpse, crocked, firm, fuddled, loaded, pie-eyed, pissed, pixilated, plastered, potent, remains, rigid, slopped, sloshed, smashed, soaked, soused, sozzled, squiffy, starchy, steadfast, steady, tight, unbendable, unfaltering, unshakable, unwavering, wet

ROUGH

• Synonyms: approximate, approximative, boisterous, crude, fierce, grating, gravelly, harsh, pugnacious, rasping, raspy, rocky, rough in, rough out, scratchy, uncut, unsmooth

ARDUOUS

• Synonyms: straining, strenuous

PARLOUS

• Synonyms: perilous, precarious, touch-and-go

ORNERY

• Synonyms: cantankerous, crotchety
• Definition: Possessing a challenging and opposing character