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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hardy.

Having rugged physical strength; inured to fatigue or hardships.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈhɑɹdi/General-American/ˈhɑːdi/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Having rugged physical strength; inured to fatigue or hardships.

  2. Able to survive adverse growing conditions, especially frost.

    A hardy plant is one that can withstand the extremes of climate, such as frost.
  3. Brave and resolute.

  4. Impudent.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English hardy, hardi, from Old French hardi (“hardy, daring, stout, bold”). Old French hardi is usually regarded as the past participle of hardir ("to harden, be bold, make bold"; compare Occitan ardir, Italian ardire), from Frankish *hardijan; but it may also have come directly from Frankish *hardi, a secondary form of Frankish *hard (compare Old High German harti, herti, secondary forms of Old High German hart (“hard”)); or even yet from Frankish *hardig (compare Middle Low German herdich (“persevering”), Old Danish hærdig, Norwegian herdig, Swedish härdig (“vigorous, courageous”)). Cognate with hard. May have at some point also been surface analysed as hard + -y.

noun/ˈhɑɹdi/General-American/ˈhɑːdi/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Anything, especially a plant, that is hardy.

    plural-normally
  2. A blacksmith's fuller or chisel, having a square shank for insertion into a square hole in an anvil.

  3. A hardy hole.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English hardy, hardi, from Old French hardi (“hardy, daring, stout, bold”). Old French hardi is usually regarded as the past participle of hardir ("to harden, be bold, make bold"; compare Occitan ardir, Italian ardire), from Frankish *hardijan; but it may also have come directly from Frankish *hardi, a secondary form of Frankish *hard (compare Old High German harti, herti, secondary forms of Old High German hart (“hard”)); or even yet from Frankish *hardig (compare Middle Low German herdich (“persevering”), Old Danish hærdig, Norwegian herdig, Swedish härdig (“vigorous, courageous”)). Cognate with hard. May have at some point also been surface analysed as hard + -y.

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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.