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Synonyms for hard
Synonyms for hard: heavy, tough, knockout and punishing. Every one of them is a hand audited pair from the Synonym Stack word bank, shown below in the sense it fits, in a real sentence, and beside the words that only look close.
The 4 synonyms for hard
Interchangeable with hard, one per sense
Audited under hard's own entry, so the meaning quoted is the one hard carries in that sense.
Recorded from the other side of the pair
These entries were written under the other word and name hard as the true synonym, so the sense quoted is theirs.
The first group is filed under hard's own senses. The second reach hard from the partner word's entry, so the sense quoted beside them is that word's.
given to excessive indulgence of bodily appetites especially for intoxicating liquors
A hard drinker.
hard in 2 more sentences, same sense
- In the letter, she confessed that her father had always been a hard drinker, though he never missed a day of work.
- The foreman warned the new hire that the last man in that job had been a hard drinker and lost his license.
How it behaves: In this sense hard almost always sits attributively right before the noun drinker, rarely stands alone predicatively, and belongs to an informal, slightly old-fashioned register.
The true synonym
heavy
Same sentence, swapped: A heavy drinker.
Close but different
Wrong tiles, chosen to be tempting rather than absurd. The reason line above takes the nearest one apart; the rest fail the same sentence for their own reasons.
- knockout
- near
- rough
Opposites, in this sense
light, moderate and temperate reverse hard as it is used in the sentence above. A different sense of hard takes different opposites, which is why these sit inside the sense and not at the top of the page.
- light
- moderate
- temperate
unfortunate or hard to bear
Had hard luck.
hard in 2 more sentences, same sense
- The family had a hard winter after the factory closed and jobs disappeared overnight.
- Her letter described a hard year of illness and unpaid bills piling up at home.
How it behaves: In this sense hard typically precedes nouns like luck, times, winter, or blow, forming fixed phrases in everyday spoken and informal written register.
The true synonym
tough
Same sentence, swapped: Had tough luck.
Close but different
These three are the other tiles the game puts on screen for this sense, and the note above says why the closest of them fails. None is a synonym for hard in the sentence quoted.
- knockout
- concentrated
- open
Opposites, in this sense
easy and mild reverse hard as it is used in the sentence above. A different sense of hard takes different opposites, which is why these sit inside the sense and not at the top of the page.
- easy
- mild
Where hard turns up in the game
hard is the word under test in two puzzles, spread across Tier 1, Foothills. It also sits on the board as one of the three wrong tiles in four other puzzles, where the answer is a different word entirely.
The puzzles where hard is the trap
- bareadjective, Tier 2, Treeline. The answer there is stripped, in the sense "having everything extraneous removed including contents", so hard is there to be ruled out.
- openadjective, Tier 3, Ridgeline. The answer there is candid, in the sense "openly straightforward and direct without reserve or secretiveness", so hard is there to be ruled out.
- firmlyadverb, Tier 4, High Camp. The answer there is steadfastly, in the sense "with resolute determination", and hard is on the board beside it.
- badlyadverb, Tier 5, Summit. The answer there is mischievously, in the sense "in a disobedient or naughty way", with hard sitting one tile away.
Play hard
The bank on this page is the bank the game plays from, so hard reaches you as a board rather than a definition: the sentence first, four tiles, and the meaning after you choose.
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Neighbours by theme before neighbours by difficulty, because actions is the company hard keeps.
The wrong tile gets explained too
Synonym Stack plays from this exact bank. hard carries 2 written reason lines, and the game shows them the moment a round ends, whichever tile you tapped.