Hard

How to spell hard

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce hard

What does hard mean?

1. adjectiveSolid and firm to the touch, or requiring great effort and not easy to do.
2. adverbWith a lot of effort, force, or intensity.

Hard in a sentence

• adjective

  The ground was too hard to dig after the long drought.

• adverb

  The whole team worked hard to meet the deadline.

• adjective

  The exam was hard for students who had not revised.

• adverb

  It rained hard all afternoon and flooded the street.

Where does hard come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is one of the oldest words in English, coming straight from the Old English heard, which meant 'solid, firm, severe, or brave'. It traces back to a shared Germanic ancestor, seen in the Dutch hard and the German hart, all carrying the sense of something tough or unyielding. The deeper root is thought to link to a Greek word kratos, meaning 'strength' or 'power', the same element that survives in 'democracy' (rule by strength of the people). From its earliest use the word stretched naturally from physical firmness to difficulty and harshness, much as it still does today. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable for over a thousand years, so the only modern trap is that it sounds and partly overlaps with the unrelated word 'heart'.

How the word is built

• hard (a complete Old English root word, not built from a prefix or suffix)