hard

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: häd, IPA^(key): /hɑːd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: härd, IPA^(key): /hɑɹd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)d

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”). Cognate with German hart, Swedish hård, Ancient Greek κρατύς (kratús), Sanskrit क्रतु (krátu), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬀𐬙𐬎 (xratu).

hard (comparative harder or more hard, superlative hardest or most hard)

1. (of material or fluid) Solid and firm.
   • 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5:

     Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain.

   1. Resistant to pressure; difficult to break, cut, or penetrate.

      Synonyms: resistant, solid, stony; see also Thesaurus:hard

      Antonym: soft

      This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it.

   2. (of drink or drugs) Strong.

      Synonym: strong

      Antonym: low-alcohol

   3. (of a normally nonalcoholic drink) Containing alcohol.

      Antonyms: alcohol-free, soft, non-alcoholic

      hard cider, hard lemonade, hard seltzer, hard soda

      • 2023 March 1, Rachel Ellison, “Bad Dates Turn Out to Be Excellent on TikTok”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

        Stunned, she deleted his number and went home. Then she cracked a hard seltzer, opened her phone’s camera and filmed a TikTok video recounting the evening  […].

   4. (oenology) Very acidic or tannic.
      • 2002, Robert M. Parker (Jr.), ‎Pierre-Antoine Rovani, Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide (page 175)

        While most 1974s remain hard, tannic, hollow wines lacking ripeness, flesh, and character, a number of the Graves estates did produce surprisingly spicy, interesting wines.

   5. (of water) High in dissolved chemical salts, especially those of calcium.
   6. (physics, of a ferromagnetic material) Having the capability of being a permanent magnet by being a material with high magnetic coercivity (compare soft).
   7. (physics, of electromagnetic radiation) Having a high energy (high frequency; short wavelength).

      hard X-rays

   8. (photography, of light) Made up of parallel rays, producing clearly defined shadows.
2. (personal or social) Having a severe property; presenting difficulty.
   1. Difficult or requiring a lot of effort to do, understand, experience, or deal with.

      Synonyms: confusing, difficult, puzzling, tough, tricky; see also Thesaurus:difficult

      Antonyms: easy, simple, straightforward, trite

      a hard problem;  a hard question;  a hard topic

      • 1988, Edmund White, An Oracle:

        Ray found it hard to imagine having accumulated so many mannerisms before the dawn of sex, of the sexual need to please, of the staginess sex encourages or the tightly capped wells of poisoned sexual desire the disappointed must stand guard over.

      • 1999 January 21, Alan Bennett, “What I did in 1998”, in London Review of Books, volume 21, number 2:

        The stone circle is small and hard to find and the search is made harder because all down the beck cars are parked on the verge and the supposedly unfrequented road up the valley very busy.

      • 2013 July 26, Nick Miroff, “Mexico gets a taste for eating insects …”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 7, page 32:

        The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile.

      • 2016 January 2, James Romm, “Beginning Greek, Again and Again”, in The New York Times‎^[2]:

        It’s been said that, for nonstellar teachers at least, the hardest things to teach are the things one loves most.

   2. Demanding a lot of effort to endure.

      Synonyms: difficult, intolerable, tough, unbearable

      Antonyms: bearable, easy

      a hard life

   4. Severe, harsh, unfriendly, brutal.

      Synonyms: harsh, hostile, severe, strict, tough, unfriendly; see also Thesaurus:stern

      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.

      • 1730, [Henry Fielding], Rape upon Rape; or, The Justice Caught in His Own Trap. A Comedy. […], London: […] J. Wat[t]s, […], →OCLC, Act IV, scene vii, page 58:

        [L]eave off fornicating, leave the Girls to the Boys, and ſtand to thy Bottle: It is a Virtue becoming our Years; and don't be too hard on a vvild honeſt young Rake.

   5. (dated) Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
      • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

        The stag was too hard for the horse.

      • 1716 March 23 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 24. Monday, March 12. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:

        a power which will be always too hard for them

   6. (military) Hardened; having unusually strong defences.

      a hard site

   7. (slang) Tough, muscular, badass.

      He thinks he's well hard.

      • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 108:

        I was a hard niggah, but not twisted enough to eat and socialize with my peeps knowing I was planning on robbing them before the night was over.

   8. (slang) Excellent, impressive.

      This song goes hard.

      This guy always has the hardest fits.

3. Unquestionable; unequivocal.

   Synonyms: incontrovertible, indubitable, unambiguous, unequivocal, unquestionable

   hard evidence;  a hard requirement

   • 1796, The History of the Trial of Warren Hastings‎^[3]:

     […] for, unless supported by hard facts, abusive words would recoil on him who used them, and would pass like empty air over the head of an innocent man.

   • 1962, The Selling Power of a Woman‎^[4]:

     Here are a few techniques to turn a hard "no" into an easy "yes"!

   • 2011 December 19, Kerry Brown, “Kim Jong-il obituary”, in The Guardian:

     Unsurprisingly for a man who went into mourning for three years after the death in 1994 of his own father, the legendary leader Kim Il-sung, and who in the first 30 years of his political career made no public statements, even to his own people, Kim's career is riddled with claims, counter claims, speculation, and contradiction. There are few hard facts about his birth and early years.

4. (of a road intersection) Having a comparatively larger or a ninety-degree angle.

   At the intersection, there are two roads going to the left. Take the hard left.

5. (slang, vulgar, of a male) Sexually aroused; having an erect penis.

   Antonyms: soft, flaccid

   I got so hard watching two hot girls wrestle each other on the beach.

6. (bodybuilding) Having muscles that are tightened as a result of intense, regular exercise.
7. (phonetics, not comparable) Fortis.

   Antonym: soft

   1. Plosive.

      There is a hard c in "clock" and a soft c in "centre".

   2. Unvoiced.

      Hard k, t, s, ch, as distinguished from soft, g, d, z, j.

8. (Slavic phonology) Velarized or plain, rather than palatalized.

   The letter ж (ž) in Russian is always hard.

9. (art) Having a severe property; presenting a barrier to enjoyment.
   1. Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
   2. Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in colour or shading.
10. (not comparable)
    1. In a physical form, not digital.

       a soft or hard copy; a digital or hard archive

    2. Using a manual or physical process, not by means of a software command.

       a hard reboot or reset

11. (politics) Far, extreme.

    hard right, hard left

12. Of silk: not having had the natural gum boiled off.
13. (finance) Of a market: having more demand than supply; being a seller's market.

    Antonym: soft

    • 2009, J. David Cummins, Olivier Mahul, Catastrophe Risk Financing in Developing Countries, page 7:

      Undercapitalized insurers cannot retain more catastrophe risks when the market is hard […]

14. (pornography) Hardcore.

• English terms starting with “hard”

• hardpeer
• hardy

• → Finnish: haarti
• → Spanish: hard

hard (comparative harder, superlative hardest)

1. (manner) With much force or effort.

   He hit the puck hard up the ice.

   They worked hard all week.

   The recession hit them especially hard.

   Think hard about your choices.

   The couple were fucking each other hard.

   • 1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet VI”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, signature A4, verso:

     Be nought diſmayd that her vnmoued mind, / doth ſtill perſiſt in her rebellious pride: / ſuch loue not lyke to luſts of baſer kynd, / the harder vvonne, the firmer vvill abide.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     […] My father / Is hard at study. Pray now, rest yourself; […]

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Wife of Bath's Tale”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     prayed so hard for mercy from the prince

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 164:

     I played hard, I drank hard, I rode hard, and did everything much on the same pattern.

   • 1985, Michael A. Arbib, In search of the person: philosophical explorations in cognitive science, page 119:

     What, then, of the voluntarist's sense that one often has to think long and hard before making agonizing choices?

2. (manner) With difficulty.

   His degree was hard earned.

3. (obsolete) So as to raise difficulties.
   • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:

     The question is hard set.

4. (manner) Compactly.

   The lake had finally frozen hard.

5. (now archaic) Near, close.

   At the intersection, bear hard left.

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:

     The King your brother is now hard at hand, / Meete with the foole, and rid your royall ſhoulders / Of ſuch a burden, as outweighs the ſands / And all the craggie rockes of Caſpea.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 18:7:

     […] whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

   • 1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam, published 2011, page 418:

     It was another long day's march before they glimpsed the towers of Harrenhal in the distance, hard beside the blue waters of the lake.

hard (countable and uncountable, plural hards)

1. (countable, nautical) A firm or paved beach or slope convenient for hauling vessels out of the water.
   • 1952, Edward John Barrington Douglas-Scott-Montagu Baron Montagu, Beaulieu, the Abbey, Palace House, and Buckler's Hard, page 36:

     The Monastery's ironworks at Sowley were renowned for centuries but declined with the passing of the 'wooden walls' at Buckler's Hard — a great number of these ships having been built with timber from the Beaulieu Woods […]

2. (countable, motor racing) A tyre whose compound is softer than superhards, and harder than mediums.
3. (uncountable, drugs, slang) Crack cocaine.
4. (uncountable, slang) Hard labor.

   The prisoners were sentenced to three years' hard.

• Bucklers Hard

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.

hard (third-person singular simple present hards, present participle harding, simple past and past participle harded)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To make hard, harden.
   • 1641, original 1618, Guillaume de Saluste Du Bartas, Josuah Sylvester, Du Bartas His Diuine Weekes and Workes:

     He knows vain men: he sees their harts that hard them In Guiles and Wiles, and will not hee regard them?

• Dhar

• IPA^(key): /ɦɑrt/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: hard
• Rhymes: -ɑrt
• Homophone: hart

From Middle Dutch hart, from Old Dutch hart, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz.

hard (comparative harder, superlative hardst)

1. hard, strong

   Antonym: zacht

2. (economics, of a currency) strong, not easily devalued
3. unquestionable, uncontestable

   harde feiten

   hard facts

4. heartless, unsympathetic (of a person)

   Antonym: zacht

5. hard, difficult

   een harde strijd

   a difficult fight

6. harsh, heavy

   harde straffen

   harsh punishments

   een harde regen

   heavy rain

7. hard, rich in calcium (of water)

   Antonym: zacht

8. loud (of sound)

   Synonym: luid

   Antonym: zacht

9. fast

   Synonym: snel

   Antonyms: langzaam, traag

   hard fietsen

   cycle fast

   hard rijden

   drive fast

   hard werken

   work hard

   hard lopen

   walk fast

• keihard
• harden
• hardheid
• hardlopen
• hardroeien
• hardrijden

• Jersey Dutch: hārd
• Negerhollands: hart
• Skepi Creole Dutch: hardt

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

hard

1. (speed) fast, swiftly

   Ik heb een bekeuring gekregen omdat ik te hard heb gereden.

   I got a ticket because I drove too fast.

2. very
3. loudly

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

hard

1. inflection of harden:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

Borrowed from English hard.

• ^{(aspirated h)} IPA^(key): /aʁd/

• Audio:

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hard (plural hards)

1. (of pornography) hardcore

   Des photos hards.

   Hardcore pictures.

hard m (plural hards)

1. hardcore pornography

   Le Journal du hard est une émission de Canal + dédiée au cinéma pornographique.

   Le Journal du hard ("Hard Porn News") is a broadcast by Canal+ dedicated to pornographic films.

2. hard rock

   Elle adore le hard et le headbang.

   She just loves hard rock and headbanging.

   • 2004, Thomas Mansier, Identité du rock et presse spécialisée. Évolution d'une culture et de son discours critique dans les magazines français des années 90, page 98:

     Le hard semble ainsi capable de remplir le contrat originel du rock.

     As such, hard rock seems capable of fulfilling the original purpose of rock.

   • 2014, Christian Eudeline, "Uriah Heep. Look At Yourself", in Du hard rock au métal. Les 100 albums cultes, Gründ (publ.).

     Au croisement du hard et du prog, Uriah Heep […] enregistre là son meilleur disque, pourtant, leurs paroles pseudo-lyriques et leurs envolées déplaisaient.

     At the crossroads of hard rock and prog rock, Uriah Heep […] records its best disc there; however, their pseudo-lyrical texts and their take-offs were disliked.

• IPA^(key): [haːɾˠd̪ˠ]

hard

1. h-prothesized form of ard

• harde

From Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz.

• IPA^(key): /hard/

hard

1. hard

• English: hard
• Yola: hard

• “hard, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old Norse harðr, from Proto-Germanic *harduz.

• IPA^(key): /hɑːɾ/, /hɑːɽ/
• Homophone: har

hard (neuter singular hardt, definite singular and plural harde, comparative hardere, indefinite superlative hardest, definite superlative hardeste)

1. hard (not soft)
2. hard, stern, severe
3. hardy

• beinhard
• hardhet
• hardkokt
• hardtslående

• forherde
• herde

• “hard” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse harðr, from Proto-Germanic *harduz.

• IPA^(key): /hɑːr/, /hɑːɽ/
• Homophone: har

hard (neuter hardt, definite singular and plural harde, comparative hardare, indefinite superlative hardast, definite superlative hardaste)

1. hard
2. hard, stern, severe
3. hardy

• beinhard
• hardkokt
• knallhard

• “hard” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī).

hard (comparative hardiro, superlative hardist)

1. hard

• hardī

• Middle Low German: hart, hārde
  • Low German: hard, hart

Borrowed from English hard.

hard (invariable)

1. hard, heavy, hardcore

From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī).

• IPA^(key): /hɔːd/

hard

1. hard
   • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 11, page 88:

     W' vengem too hard, he zunk ee commane,

     With venom too hard, he sunk his bat-club,

• halpish

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 88