Arduous vs. Ordeal — What's the Difference?

Involving or requiring strenuous effort; difficult and tiring

A difficult or painful experience, especially one that severely tests character or endurance.

Demanding great effort or labor; difficult

A method of trial in which the accused was subjected to pain or danger as a means of invoking God's intercession, with the outcome regarded as revealing a divine determination of guilt or innocence.

Testing severely the powers of endurance; strenuous

A painful or trying experience.

Hard to traverse, climb, or surmount.

A trial in which the accused was subjected to a dangerous test (such as ducking in water), divine authority deciding the guilt of the accused.

Needing or using up much energy; testing powers of endurance.

The poisonous ordeal bean or Calabar bean

(obsolete) burning; ardent

An ancient form of test to determine guilt or innocence, by appealing to a supernatural decision, - once common in Europe, and still practiced in the East and by savage tribes.

Difficult or exhausting to traverse.

Any severe trial, or test; a painful experience.

Steep and lofty, in a literal sense; hard to climb.

Of or pertaining to trial by ordeal.

Attended with great labor, like the ascending of acclivities; difficult; laborious; as, an arduous employment, task, or enterprise.

A severe or trying experience

Characterized by toilsome effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort;

A primitive method of determining a person's guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused person to dangerous or painful tests believed to be under divine control; escape was usually taken as a sign of innocence

Taxing to the utmost; testing powers of endurance;

Difficult to accomplish; demanding considerable mental effort and skill;