Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

hard time

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.46 in modern English

Syllables: hard -time
IPA

14

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

2

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Difficulties; a difficult time; trouble.

Colloquial; Countable

noun

Colloquial; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"They had a hard time putting the self-assembly furniture together without a manual."
"The day passed without further incident. As did the next. And then the next. Until, eventually, Agnes began to have a hard time believing that anything strange had ever happened at all."
"Jack got hard time for his part in the robbery."

Usage

Inflected Forms

hard times (plural)

Phrases

give someone a hard time hard-times token

Synonyms

rough sledding

Questions

What does hard time mean?: Difficulties; a difficult time; trouble.

How to pronounce hard time

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “hard time”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “hard time”.
Repeat and practice — Say “hard time” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.