Difficulty and Penalty

Difficulty

Difficulty noun - Something that is a cause for suffering or special effort especially in the attainment of a goal.

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Penalty and difficulty are semantically related In some cases you can replace term "Penalty" with "Difficulty", this nouns are similar.

Nearby Word: difficult

Penalty noun - A sum of money to be paid as a punishment.

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Difficulty and penalty are semantically related in disadvantage topic. Sometimes you can use "Difficulty" instead a noun "Penalty".

high	high difficulty	high penalty
special	special difficulty	special penalty
normal	normal difficulty	normal penalty
standard	standard difficulty	standard penalty
Other adjectives: actual, real, severe, massive, extreme, serious, little, inherent, less, minimal, hidden, extra, additional, significant, reduced, maximum, higher.

And then there are the Goddamned Rats and Lice, Explosive Breeders which reproduce with no difficulty or penalty except for an Arbitrary Headcount Limit.

Source: Goddamned Bats / Roguelike
The difficulty depends on how hostile the target is and how friendly you want it to become (but not how powerful the target is), with an extra penalty to do it in a single round.

Source: Compelling Voice
Bullet Hell Continuing Is Painful: Playing on the highest difficulty on a ship with a high charge penalty on death can affect your immediate scoring potiental by several orders of magnitude.

Source: Video Game / Lunacy Star

Cite this Source

Penalty and Difficulty. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 29, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/difficulty/penalty

Difficulty & Penalty. N.p., 2016. Web. 29 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/difficulty/penalty>.

Penalty or Difficulty. 2016. Accessed July 29, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/difficulty/penalty.

Google Ngram Viewer shows how "difficulty" and "penalty" have occurred on timeline