difficulty vs problem

difficulty

noun
  • An objection. 

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

  • An obstacle that hinders achievement of a goal. 

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

  • An awkward situation or quarrel. 

  • That which cannot be easily understood or believed. 

problem

noun
  • Objection. 

  • A difficulty that has to be resolved or dealt with. 

  • A puzzling circumstance. 

  • A set of moves required to complete a climb. 

  • A question to be answered, schoolwork exercise. 

  • Difficulty in accepting or understanding or refusal to accept or understand. 

adj
  • Causing a problem; problematic; troublesome. 

  • Difficult to train or guide; unruly. 

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