hard.
Solid and firm.
Meaning & usage
Solid and firm.
Solid and firm. Resistant to pressure; difficult to break, cut, or penetrate.
This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it.
Solid and firm. Strong.
Solid and firm. Containing alcohol.
hard cider, hard lemonade, hard seltzer, hard soda
Solid and firm. Very acidic or tannic.
Solid and firm. High in dissolved chemical salts, especially those of calcium.
Solid and firm. Having the capability of being a permanent magnet by being a material with high magnetic coercivity (compare soft).
Solid and firm. Having a high energy (high frequency; short wavelength).
hard X-rays
Solid and firm. Made up of parallel rays, producing clearly defined shadows.
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Difficult or requiring a lot of effort to do, understand, experience, or deal with.
a hard problem; a hard question; a hard topic
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Demanding a lot of effort to endure.
a hard life
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Severe, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.
a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character
The senator asked the party chief to put the hard word on his potential rivals.
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Hardened; having unusually strong defences.
a hard site
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Tough, muscular, badass.
He thinks he's well hard.
Having a severe property; presenting difficulty. Excellent, impressive.
This song goes hard.
This guy always has the hardest fits.
Unquestionable; unequivocal.
hard evidence; a hard requirement
Having a comparatively larger or a ninety-degree angle.
At the intersection, there are two roads going to the left. Take the hard left.
Sexually aroused; having an erect penis.
I got so hard watching two hot girls wrestle each other on the beach.
Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.
Fortis. Plosive.
There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre".
Fortis. Unvoiced.
Hard k, t, s, ch, as distinguished from soft, g, d, z, j.
Velarized or plain, rather than palatalized.
The letter ж (ž) in Russian is always hard.
Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment. Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment. Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in colour or shading.
In a physical form, not digital.
a soft or hard copy; a digital or hard archive
Using a manual or physical process, not by means of a software command.
a hard reboot or reset
Far, extreme.
hard right, hard left
Not having had the natural gum boiled off.
Of a market: having more demand than supply; being a seller's market.
Hardcore.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kort-ús, from *kret- (“strong, powerful”). Cognates Cognate with Yola hard (“hard”), West Frisian hurd (“hard”), Alemannic German hert (“hard”), Bavarian hoat (“hard”), Central Franconian haat (“hard”), Dutch hard (“hard”), German hart (“hard”), Luxembourgish haart (“hard”), Danish and Swedish hård (“hard”), Faroese and Icelandic harður (“hard”), Norwegian Bokmål hard (“hard”), Norwegian Nynorsk hard, hard’u (“hard”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus, “hard”), Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong, mighty”), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu, “power, might, ability”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu).
With much force or effort.
He hit the puck hard up the ice.
They worked hard all week.
With difficulty.
His degree was hard earned.
So as to raise difficulties.
Compactly.
The lake had finally frozen hard.
Near, close.
At the intersection, bear hard left.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kort-ús, from *kret- (“strong, powerful”). Cognates Cognate with Yola hard (“hard”), West Frisian hurd (“hard”), Alemannic German hert (“hard”), Bavarian hoat (“hard”), Central Franconian haat (“hard”), Dutch hard (“hard”), German hart (“hard”), Luxembourgish haart (“hard”), Danish and Swedish hård (“hard”), Faroese and Icelandic harður (“hard”), Norwegian Bokmål hard (“hard”), Norwegian Nynorsk hard, hard’u (“hard”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus, “hard”), Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong, mighty”), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu, “power, might, ability”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu).
A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.
A tyre whose compound is softer than superhards, and harder than mediums.
Crack cocaine.
Hard labor.
The prisoners were sentenced to three years' hard.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kort-ús, from *kret- (“strong, powerful”). Cognates Cognate with Yola hard (“hard”), West Frisian hurd (“hard”), Alemannic German hert (“hard”), Bavarian hoat (“hard”), Central Franconian haat (“hard”), Dutch hard (“hard”), German hart (“hard”), Luxembourgish haart (“hard”), Danish and Swedish hård (“hard”), Faroese and Icelandic harður (“hard”), Norwegian Bokmål hard (“hard”), Norwegian Nynorsk hard, hard’u (“hard”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌿𐍃 (hardus, “hard”), Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús, “strong, mighty”), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu, “power, might, ability”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu).
To make hard, harden.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English harden, herden, from Old English heardian (“to become hard”) and hierdan (“to make hard”), from Proto-West Germanic *hardēn and *hardijan, from Proto-Germanic *hardijaną. Cognates Cognate with Dutch harden (“to harden”), German härten (“to harden”), Danish hærde (“to harden; to temper”), Icelandic herða (“to harden”), Norwegian Bokmål herde (“to harden; to toughen”), Norwegian Nynorsk herda (“to make hard, temper; harden”), Swedish härda (“harden, temper”), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (gahardjan), *𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (*hardjan, “to harden”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.