An ordeal is a severely difficult or painful experience that tests someone's strength, courage, or endurance. When you go through an ordeal, you face something truly challenging that pushes you to your limits.

The word suggests extraordinary difficulty beyond everyday problems. Getting a shot at the doctor might be unpleasant, but breaking your arm and enduring weeks of pain and recovery is an ordeal. Taking a regular test isn't an ordeal, but sitting through a grueling four-hour exam while battling the flu might be. An ordeal is something that genuinely tries you, that you have to survive or get through rather than simply complete.

Historically, an ordeal was actually a test used to determine someone's guilt or innocence, like being forced to carry hot iron or plunge a hand into boiling water. People believed the innocent would be protected from harm. These brutal practices ended centuries ago, but the word remains.

Today we use ordeal for experiences that feel like tests of character: a family's ordeal during a serious illness, a hiker's ordeal surviving a blizzard, or a student's ordeal preparing for and taking entrance exams. The word captures both the suffering involved and the sense that you're being tested by circumstances. When someone says “what an ordeal,” they're acknowledging that the experience was genuinely tough and took real strength to endure.