| 100% | TRICKY | 6 | Difficult or intricate |
| 60% | HARD | 4 | Difficult or challenging |
| 60% | ARDUOUS | 7 | Difficult or draining |
| 59% | TRICKY | 6 | Difficult, intricate |
| 59% | PLIGHT | 6 | Difficult or dangerous situation |
| 59% | PREDICAMENT | 11 | Difficult or unpleasant situation |
| 59% | ROUGHPASSAGE | 12 | Difficult or testing time |
| 59% | HARD | 4 | Difficult or challenging, say |
| 56% | HARD | 4 | Extremely difficult or tricky |
| 55% | PIECEOFWORK | 11 | Difficult or complicated person, so to speak |
| 55% | FIENDISH | 8 | Extremely difficult or challenging; devious |
| 54% | QUAGMIRE | 8 | Difficult or shaky position at risk of sinking |
| 53% | TALLORDER | 9 | Difficult job or task |
| 52% | STEEL | 5 | Get ready for something difficult or unpleasant |
| 52% | HIDDEN | 6 | Difficult to see or find |
| 52% | CHALLENGE | 9 | Difficult, taxing situation or task |
| 52% | INDOMITABLE | 11 | Difficult to defeat or subdue |
| 51% | DEMANDING | 9 | Very difficult or requiring a lot of effort |
| 51% | TECHNICAL | 9 | Involving a lot of difficult or involved processes |
| 49% | TOUGHCALL | 9 | Difficult choice or perception between two options |
| 48% | SHAGGYDOG | 9 | A silly or meaningless, intricate tale |
| 47% | HIGHWATER | 9 | "Come hell or __", through difficult circumstances |
| 47% | QUAGMIRE | 8 | A difficult, precarious or entrapping position |
| 47% | ENIGMA | 6 | Something difficult to grasp or puzzling |
| 47% | TALL | 4 | Like doubtful tales or difficult orders |
| 46% | INAPICKLE | 9 | Facing a difficult experience or tricky time |
| 45% | APHISTORY | 9 | Difficult H.S. class covering U.S. or world events |
| 45% | DIVA | 4 | A celebrity who acts particularly demanding or difficult |
| 45% | HAYSTACK | 8 | Needle in a __, or something difficult to find |
| 43% | ELUSIVE | 7 | Hard to find or difficult to take hold of |