The quality or state of being hard, literally or figuratively. [1913 Webster]
"The habit of authority also had given his manners some peremptory hardness." [1913 Webster]
The cohesion of the particles on the surface of a body, determined by its capacity to scratch another, or be itself scratched; -- measured among minerals on a scale of which diamond and talc form the extremes. [1913 Webster]
The peculiar quality exhibited by water which has mineral salts dissolved in it. Such water forms an insoluble compound with soap, and is hence unfit for washing purposes. [1913 Webster]
" This quality is caused by the presence of calcium carbonate, causing temporary hardness which can be removed by boiling, or by calcium sulphate, causing permanent hardness which can not be so removed, but may be improved by the addition of sodium carbonate." [1913 Webster]

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THESAURUS

hardness

Philistinism, abstruseness, arduousness, armor, asperity, astringency, austerity, bothersomeness, burdensomeness, callosity, callousness, callus, closeness, cohesiveness, coldbloodedness, coldheartedness, coldness, compactness, complexity, complication, congestedness, congestion, consistence, consistency, crabbedness, crampedness, crowdedness, cruelty, deepness, denseness, density, difficultness, difficulty, durability, esoterica, firmness, flintiness, formidable defenses, fundamentalism, gluiness, grimness, hairiness, hard heart, hard shell, hardenedness, hardheartedness, hardiness, hardness of heart, hardship, harshness, heart of stone, heartlessness, impenetrability, impenitence, impenitentness, impermeability, imperviousness, impliability, imporosity, inclemency, incompressibility, induration, inexorability, inexorableness, inflexibility, infrangibility, insensitiveness, insensitivity, insolence, intricacy, inuredness, irrepentance, jammedness, knottiness, laboriousness, lastingness, leatherlikeness, mercilessness, nonrepentance, obduracy, obdurateness, obstinacy, onerousness, oppressiveness, orthodoxy, pitilessness, precisianism, profoundness, profundity, purism, puritanism, reconditeness, relative density, relentlessness, remorselessness, resistance, rhinoceros hide, rigidity, rigidness, rigor, rigorousness, ropiness, roughness, ruggedness, ruthlessness, seared conscience, severity, short shrift, solidity, solidness, soundness, specific gravity, spissitude, stability, stamina, staunchness, sternness, stiffness, stoniness, stoutness, strength, strenuousness, stringency, stringiness, stubbornness, sturdiness, temper, tenacity, tender mercies, thick skin, thickness, toilsomeness, toughness, troublesomeness, unabjectness, unbendingness, unbreakability, unbreakableness, uncompassionateness, uncompromisingness, uncontriteness, unfeeling, unfeelingness, unforgivingness, ungentleness, unmercifulness, unnaturalness, unrelentingness, unremorsefulness, unresponsiveness, unsympatheticness, unyieldingness, vicissitude, vigor, viscidity, viscosity, viscousness, vitality

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ROGET THESAURUS

hardness

Difficulty

N difficulty, hardness, impracticability, tough work, hard work, uphill work, hard task, Herculean task, Augean task, task of Sisyphus, Sisyphean labor, tough job, teaser, rasper, dead lift, dilemma, embarrassment, deadlock, perplexity, intricacy, entanglement, complexity, cross fire, awkwardness, delicacy, ticklish card to play, knot, Gordian knot, dignus vindice nodus, net, meshes, maze, coil, crooked path, involvement, nice point, delicate point, subtle point, knotty point, vexed question, vexata quaestio, poser, puzzle, paradox, hard nut to crack, nut to crack, bone to pick, crux, pons asinorum, where the shoe pinches, nonplus, quandary, strait, pass, pinch, pretty pass, stress, brunt, critical situation, crisis, trial, rub, emergency, exigency, scramble, scrape, hobble, slough, quagmire, hot water, hornet's nest, sea of troubles, peck of troubles, pretty kettle of fish, pickle, stew, imbroglio, mess, ado, false position, set fast, stand, standstill, deadlock, dead set, fix, horns of a dilemma, cul de sac, hitch, stumbling block, crab, curmudgeon, difficult, not easy, hard, tough, troublesome, toilsome, irksome, operose, laborious, onerous, arduous, Herculean, formidable, sooner said than done, more easily said than done, easier said than done, difficult to deal with, hard to deal with, ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby, not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water, awkward, unwieldy, unmanageable, intractable, stubborn, perverse, refractory, plaguy, trying, thorny, rugged, knotted, knotty, invious, pathless, trackless, labyrinthine, intricate, complicated, impracticable, not feasible, desperate, embarrassing, perplexing, delicate, ticklish, critical, beset with difficulties, full of difficulties, surrounded by difficulties, entangled by difficulties, encompassed with difficulties, under a difficulty, in a box, in difficulty, in hot water, in the suds, in a cleft stick, in a fix, in the wrong box, in a scrape, in deep water, in a fine pickle, in extremis, between two stools, between Scylla and Charybdis, surrounded by shoals, surrounded by breakers, surrounded by quicksands, at cross purposes, not out of the wood, reduced to straits, hard pressed, sorely pressed, run hard, pinched, put to it, straitened, hard up, hard put to it, hard set, put to one's shifts, puzzled, at a loss, at the end of one's tether, at the end of one's rope, at one's wit's end, at a nonplus, at a standstill, graveled, nonplused, nonplussed, stranded, aground, stuck fast, set fast, up a tree, at bay, aux abois, driven into a corner, driven from pillar to post, driven to extremity, driven to one's wit's end, driven to the wall, au bout de son Latin, out of one's depth, thrown out, accomplished with difficulty, hard-fought, hard-earned, with difficulty, with much ado, barely, hardly, uphill, against the stream, against the grain, d rebours, invita Minerva, in the teeth of, at a pinch, upon a pinch, at long odds, against long odds, ay there's the rub, hic labor hoc opus, things are come to a pretty pass, ab inconvenienti, ad astra per aspera, acun chemin de fleurs ne conduit a la gloire.

Hardness

N hardness, rigidity, renitence, renitency, inflexibility, temper, callosity, durity, induration, petrifaction, lapidification, lapidescence, vitrification, ossification, crystallization, stone, pebble, flint, marble, rock, fossil, crag, crystal, quartz, granite, adamant, bone, cartilage, hardware, heart of oak, block, board, deal board, iron, steel, cast iron, decarbonized iron, wrought iron, nail, brick, concrete, cement, hard, rigid, stubborn, stiff, firm, starch, starched, stark, unbending, unlimber, unyielding, inflexible, tense, indurate, indurated, gritty, proof, adamant, adamantine, adamantean, concrete, stony, granitic, calculous, lithic, vitreous, horny, corneous, bony, osseous, ossific, cartilaginous, hard as a rock, stiff as buckram, stiff as a poker, stiff as starch, stiff as as board.

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