Difficult
Difficult adjective - Requiring considerable physical or mental effort.
Usage example: difficult questions on the exam that required analytical thinking
Taxing is a synonym for difficult in heavy topic. In some cases you can use "Taxing" instead an adjective "Difficult", when it comes to topics like hard.
Nearby Word: difficulty
Taxing
Taxing adjective - Requiring much time, effort, or careful attention.
Usage example: a very taxing workload that is taking a lot of time to finish
Difficult is a synonym for taxing in demanding topic. You can use "Difficult" instead an adjective "Taxing", if it concerns topics such as heavy, burdensome.
Mutual synonyms
Related pairs
Both words in one sentence
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While one chapter is simply memorizing the numbers in Pi, others are subtly wrong in their internal logic (nursery rhymes that don't quite rhyme correctly, for example), making them difficult and taxing to memorize.
Source: Literature / Anathem - While the original game was modestly difficult up until midway through Taxing, ONML jumps from laughably easy to god-this-is-hard in its second difficulty setting (of five) and goes up from there.
Source: Sequel Difficulty Spike -
The unimportance of special skills doesn't mean it isn't difficult as well as grueling; people who haven't relied on such work for a living often imagine that juggling all the orders during a rush, on top of other tasks, is somehow not mentally taxing (as is a lot of "unskilled" labor).
Source: Acceptable Professional Targets
Cite this Source
Taxing and Difficult. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 18, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/difficult/taxing
Difficult & Taxing. N.p., 2016. Web. 18 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/difficult/taxing>.
Taxing or Difficult. 2016. Accessed August 18, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/difficult/taxing.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "difficult" and "taxing" have occurred on timeline