Home / Words / arduousNo. 0030

arduous

/ˈɑːrdʒuəs//ˈɑːdjuəs/·adjective
needing great effort and endurance; difficult and tiring
Fig. 1 — It isn't a long slope, but I watch the climber pay for every foot of it — a heave upward, then a sag back, the steps shortening as the legs give out.
01Definition

Arduous describes the kind of difficulty that is felt in the body — a steep, long, exhausting effort, from the Latin arduus, 'steep, high'. An arduous climb, an arduous journey, arduous negotiations that drag on for months: the word stresses not cleverness but stamina, the sheer toll of keeping on. It belongs to the diligent and the stubborn, because what is arduous is survived only by those willing to persist long after the first effort would have stopped.

02In use
  • iThe expedition faced an arduous trek across the ice, days of it with no shelter.
  • iiRestoring the manuscript was arduous work that would culminate in a single exhibition.
  • iiiLearning a language as an adult is arduous, but a resilient learner treats each setback as practice.
03Collocations
  • an arduous journey
  • an arduous task
  • arduous training
  • long and arduous

Family arduously (adverb) · arduousness (noun)

04Relations

=grueling, laborious, strenuous, demanding, taxing

≠easy, effortless, undemanding

06TOEFL & IELTS

TOEFL and IELTS reading use 'arduous' for expeditions, training, and reforms — anything achieved only through sustained effort. In Writing and Speaking, 'a long and arduous process' is a polished upgrade over 'very hard'. Mind the stress: ARD-you-us, on the first syllable. It describes the effort, not the worker — a task is arduous, a person is diligent.

07Asked
How do you pronounce arduous?
AR-joo-us in American English (/ˈɑːrdʒuəs/), AR-dyoo-us in British (/ˈɑːdjuəs/) — three syllables, stress on the FIRST. The common error is stressing the second syllable ('ar-DOO-us'), by analogy with words like tremendous. Front-load the stress and the word carries itself.
What is the difference between arduous and difficult?
Difficult covers every kind of hardness — intellectual, social, technical. Arduous names one kind only: the long, draining sort that taxes stamina rather than cleverness. A crossword is difficult; a mountain crossing is arduous. If the hardship can be finished in one clever stroke, arduous is the wrong word.
What is the difference between arduous and strenuous?
Strenuous measures the intensity of effort at a moment — a strenuous workout can be over in twenty minutes. Arduous measures the toll of keeping on: length plus grind. The climber in the scene above is the difference embodied — shortening steps, a halt spent merely refusing to slide back, and the last of itself thrown at the lip.
Can arduous describe things that aren't physical?
Yes — arduous negotiations, an arduous legal process, the arduous work of reform. The word carries its body-metaphor with it: calling a task arduous claims it drains you the way a steep climb does, over a long haul. That transferred weight is why it flatters effort in a way 'hard' cannot.
Is arduous a formal word?
Formal-leaning and literary — at home in journalism, history and exam essays, rare in small talk, where 'exhausting' or 'a real slog' do the job. Its favourite companions are journeys, tasks, processes and climbs: 'a long and arduous journey' is practically a set phrase, and a safe band-raiser in writing.
Where does arduous come from?
From Latin arduus, 'steep, high' — Romans used it of cliffs and citadels before anyone used it of paperwork. English took the word in the 1500s and climbed the same path: first literal heights, then any labour that feels like one. Whatever you call arduous, you are quietly comparing it to a slope — English has no better one-word fossil of a hillside.