difficulty vs hardship

difficulty

noun
  • The state of being difficult, or hard to do. 

  • Physical danger from the environment, especially with risk of drowning 

  • An obstacle that hinders achievement of a goal. 

  • An objection. 

  • An awkward situation or quarrel. 

  • That which cannot be easily understood or believed. 

hardship

noun
  • Difficulty or trouble; hard times. 

  • A burden, a source of difficulty that could impose a barrier. 

verb
  • To treat (a person) badly; to subject to hardships. 

How often have the words difficulty and hardship occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )