How to Use hard-won in a Sentence

hard-won

adjective
  • Her resilience is hard-won, sources say.
    — Simon Perry, PEOPLE, 29 Apr. 2026
  • Healing is slow, and every small moment of peace feels hard-won.
    — Brandi Hicken, Time, 12 Dec. 2025
  • Hollingworth’s arrival at this joyful point was hard-won.
    — Aimee Cliff, Pitchfork, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The progress earned by ethnic minorities and women in the armed services was hard-won.
    — Adam Serwer, The Atlantic, 8 Apr. 2026
  • In a world where trust is hard-won, a privacy-first AI assistant could be a differentiator that keeps customers coming back.
    — Sandy Carter, Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025
  • The federal recognition was hard-won, having come after a wave of unrest among workers and labor activists put the issue of workers' rights into public view.
    — Saman Shafiq, USA Today, 1 Sep. 2025
  • The federal recognition was hard-won, having come after a wave of unrest among workers and labor activists brought the issue of workers' rights into public view.
    — Saman Shafiq, USA Today, 19 Aug. 2025
  • Tate captures the tension between opportunity and limitation, reminding readers that equality is often pursued in spaces where recognition is hard-won.
    — Literary Hub, 26 June 2026
  • Traditionally, music making has required hard-won skills - the infamous 10,000 hours of practice - plus a certain amount of money to buy guitars, amps, computers, software and studio equipment.
    — Trevor Clawson, Forbes.com, 17 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hard-won.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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