arduous
Americanadjective
-
requiring great exertion; laborious; difficult.
an arduous undertaking.
- Synonyms:
- exhausting, burdensome, wearisome, onerous, toilsome, hard
- Antonyms:
- easy
-
requiring or using much energy and vigor; strenuous.
making an arduous effort.
-
hard to climb; steep.
an arduous path up the hill.
-
hard to endure; full of hardships; severe.
an arduous winter.
adjective
-
requiring great physical or mental effort; difficult to accomplish; strenuous
-
hard to endure; harsh
arduous conditions
-
hard to overcome or surmount; steep or difficult
an arduous track
Other Word Forms
- arduously adverb
- arduousness noun
- superarduous adjective
- superarduously adverb
- superarduousness noun
- unarduous adjective
- unarduously adverb
- unarduousness noun
Etymology
Origin of arduous
First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin arduus “erect, laborious, steep”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Meals feel less like a relaxing reprieve after long, arduous missions and more like a tension-filled calm before a storm you’re 100% certain is coming — and may very well take you with it.
From Salon
“The arduous reparation from the ravages of the pandemic are all but complete, with the shares now having exceeded the record highs achieved in 2018,” he said.
Digitizing it and syncing it up with audio was an arduous slog.
“You’re making this long, arduous journey, and when you get there, kind of by definition, there’s nothing.”
Bondi slipped in the jab near the end of an arduous House hearing largely focused on the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
