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"tough" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often hardy (5 letters).
Definitions
Strong, difficult, or hard to damage.
Word origin
From Middle English tough, towgh, tou, toȝ, from Old English tōh (“tough, tenacious, holding fast together; pliant; sticky, glutinous, clammy”), from Proto-West Germanic *tą̄h(ī), from Proto-Germanic *tanhuz (“fitting; clinging; tenacious; tough”), from *tinganą (“to press upon, throng”), from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”).
Used in a sentence
“The tent, made of tough canvas, held up to many abuses.”
“To soften a tough cut of meat, the recipe suggested simmering it for hours.”
“Only a tough species will survive in the desert.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Hard to endure”5 letters
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