hardship in WordNet English dictionary

1. a state of misfortune or affliction
   "debt-ridden farmers struggling with adversity"; "a life of hardship"
   adversity  hardship  hard knocks 
   
2. something hard to endure
   "the asperity of northern winters"
   asperity  grimness  hardship  rigor  rigour  severity  severeness  rigorousness  rigourousness 
   
3. something that causes or entails suffering
   "I cannot think it a hardship that more indulgence is allowed to men than to women"- James Boswell; "the many hardships of frontier life"
   hardship