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say it: hahrd
hard is an adjective and adverb meaning "not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure". It carries 22 recorded senses.
characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort
“worked their arduous way up the mining valley”
“a grueling campaign”
“hard labor”
“heavy work”
“heavy going”
“spent many laborious hours on the project”
“set a punishing pace”
(of light) transmitted directly from a pointed light source
given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors
“a hard drinker”
with effort or force or vigor
“the team played hard”
“worked hard all day”
“pressed hard on the lever”
“hit the ball hard”
“slammed the door hard”
earnestly or intently
“thought hard about it”
“stared hard at the accused”
causing great damage or hardship
“industries hit hard by the depression”
“she was severely affected by the bank's failure”
slowly and with difficulty
“prejudices die hard”
“he was so dizzy he could hardly stand up straight”
into a solid condition
“concrete that sets hard within a few hours”
very near or close in space or time
“it stands hard by the railroad tracks”
“they were hard on his heels”
“a strike followed hard upon the plant's opening”
with pain or distress or bitterness
“he took the rejection very hard”
to the full extent possible; all the way
“hard alee”
“the ship went hard astern”
“swung the wheel hard left”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for hard come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.