difficile

Difficile is a term used in several languages and disciplines, most often as an adjective meaning "difficult." In French and Italian it functions as a standard descriptor, deriving from the Latin difficilis. In both languages, it is used to characterize tasks, problems, or situations that require effort, skill, or persistence. In French, the plural form is difficiles; in Italian, singular forms are difficile and the plural is difficili, with the adjective agreeing in gender and number.

In music notation, the Italian word difficile appears as a directive in scores to indicate a passage that is technically demanding for performers. It signals greater difficulty than surrounding material and is part of expressive instruction found in classical repertoire.

In biology and medicine, the term appears in the name of the bacterium Clostridioides difficile, commonly abbreviated C. difficile. This organism is a significant cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea and colitis. The epithet difficile reflects the historical difficulty in isolating or studying the organism. The genus name has since been updated from Clostridium to Clostridioides, but the shorthand C. difficile remains widely used in clinical contexts.

Etymology: difficile derives from Latin difficilis, formed from dis- (not, apart) and facilis (easy). The word has cognates in multiple languages, including French difficile and Italian difficile, both sharing the same root.

Usage notes: In English-language writing, difficilent remains a loanword primarily encountered in bilingual or specialized medical and linguistic contexts. In everyday French and Italian, the adjective is common and follows the respective language’s gender-number agreement rules.