difficulty
n. C / Un. the state of being hard to do or understand. You use this word when something requires a lot of effort or skill to finish.
n. the quality or state of being hard to accomplish, deal with, or understand. Often used to describe the level of effort required by a task or the presence of obstacles.
The students finished the test despite its high level of difficulty.
He had great difficulty finding a parking space in the crowded city center on a Saturday morning.
The inherent difficulty of translating poetry lies in the need to preserve both the literal meaning and the rhythmic structure of the original text.
From Middle English difficulte, from Middle French and Anglo-Norman difficulte and their etymon Latin difficultas, from difficul, older form of difficilis (“hard to do, difficult”), from dis- + facilis (“easy”); see difficile and difficult. Equivalent to dis- + facile + -ty. Also analysable as difficult + -y, though the adjective is historically a backformation from the noun.
Uncountable when referring to the abstract quality of being hard; countable when referring to specific problems or obstacles.
I have a difficulty to understandI have difficulty understandingWhen followed by a verb, the noun is typically followed by a gerund (-ing) rather than an infinitive.