Definition of challenging adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

challenging

adjective

/ˈtʃælɪndʒɪŋ/

difficult in an interesting way that tests your ability
- challenging work/questions/problems
- I have had a challenging and rewarding career as a teacher.
Synonyms difficult
difficulthard ▪ challenging ▪ demanding ▪ taxingThese words all describe something that is not easy and requires a lot of effort or skill to do.
difficult not easy; needing effort or skill to do or to understand:
The exam questions were quite difficult.
It is difficult for young people to find jobs around here.
hard not easy; needing effort or skill to do or understand:
I always found languages quite hard at school.
It was one of the hardest things I ever did.
difficult or hard?Hard is slightly less formal than difficult. It is used particularly in the structure hard to believe/say/find/take, etc., although difficult can also be used in any of these examples.
challenging (approving) difficult in an interesting way that tests your ability.demanding difficult to do or deal with and needing a lot of effort, skill, etc.:
It is a technically demanding piece of music to play.
taxing (often used in negative statements) difficult to do and needing a lot of mental or physical effort:
This shouldn’t be too taxing for you.
Patterns
- difficult/hard/challenging/demanding/taxing for somebody
- difficult/hard to do something
- physically difficult/hard/challenging/demanding/taxing
- technically difficult/challenging/demanding
- mentally/intellectually challenging/demanding/taxing
Extra Examples
- He found the course academically challenging.
- The tasks were not challenging enough for me and I got bored.
- We have changed the course to make it more challenging.
- It will be a challenging target to meet.
Topics Working lifeb2
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
verbs
- be
- prove
- make something
- …
adverb
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
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done in a way that invites people to disagree or argue with you, or shows that you disagree with them
- She gave him a challenging look. ‘Are you really sure?’ she demanded.
- Dealing with challenging behaviour in school is never easy.
Topics Opinion and argumentc1

See challenging in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee challenging in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English

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