Is this your crossword clue?
"hard" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often difficult (9 letters).
Definitions
Firm; difficult; with effort
Word origin
From Middle English hard, from Old English heard, from Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī), from Proto-Germanic *harduz, from Proto-Indo-European *kort-ús, from *kret- (“strong, powerful”).
Used in a sentence
“Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain.”
“This bread is so stale and hard, I can barely cut it.”
“hard cider, hard lemonade, hard seltzer, hard soda”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer8 curated clues
01“Challenging”4 letters
02“Demanding”4 letters
03“Difficult to do”4 letters
04“Difficult to solve”4 letters
05“Not easy”4 letters
06“Solid to the touch”4 letters
07“Tough to solve”4 letters
08“Not soft”4 letters
Not quite right?
"Search similar patterns."
H___