knotty
1
8.1
- adjective
- /ˈnɑti/
:
complicado
- When a scientist, engineer, artist, or mathematician solves a particularly knotty problem, the resultant exhilaration is more than an egotistical reaction to having beaten the competition or the odds.
- knotty problem
- knotty issue
- knotty questions
Oh, it's a knotty issue because there is so many.
- Oh, it's a knotty issue because there is so many.
Examples
-
State and national legislatures are underway trying to come to grips with new solutions to old and knotty problems.
Academic text (1993) -
Other vendors also make products to guide engineers through knotty compliance issues.
Academic text (2006) -
Well, that was a knotty one, but we got her in the end.
-
Despite the many alternatives available for the future, great and small, there are plenty of knotty political problems to work out before then.
Academic text (2007) -
The politics of this kind of production experience can be knotty, but it is a very important component in the education of public historians.
Academic text (1998) -
If the matter be knotty, and the sense lies deep, the mind must stop and buckle to it.
Academic text (2000) -
" You're helping the law unravel a very knotty problem, and we're all grateful.
Fiction book (1993) -
I should think that, also for Catholics, the suggestion of a Vatican III poses knotty questions.
Academic text (2013) -
Scott Shane, the Times reporter, finds the topic knotty and the secrecy hard to penetrate.
Blog text (7) -
The team faced a knotty problem when trying to find a solution to the budget cuts.
Synonyms
∞
1.6
Not easy to do or understand
∞
2.6
Hard to do or understand and needing a lot of effort
876
5.4
Difficult to understand or deal with because it has many connected parts
276
3.2
Hard to understand and makes people feel unsure
214
3.9
Difficult to do because it has hidden problems
31
8.6
Very complicated and hard to follow, often not needed
27
6.4
Hard to understand and causing confusion
16
6.6
Complicated and hard to understand
16
6.3
Full of problems that are hard to deal with or cause disagreement
9
6.4
Difficult to understand
7
8.1
Full of twists and turns, like a winding road or an argument
4
6.8
Very complicated and hard to follow, like rules or relationships
4
9.2
Having many parts that are hard to follow like a maze
1
8.6
Very difficult to solve, cleverly made to confuse people
1
5.1
Fairly difficult and needing some skill or care to do
Very hard to understand because it is complicated
Antonyms
Compounds
- US
1
4.3
Pine wood with many knots used for wall panels and furniture to give a rustic look
How Difficult
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Knotty also came to mean 'difficult' because a knot is something tangled and hard to undo. So a 'knotty' problem is like a knot you cannot untie, meaning it is twisted and hard to solve.