difficulty vs trial

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. 

trial

noun
  • A difficult or annoying experience, (especially religion) such an experience seen as a test of faith and piety 

  • Appearance at judicial court in order to be examined. 

  • A clinical trial, a research study. 

  • A piece of ware used to test the heat of a kiln. 

  • The trial number. 

  • An opportunity to test something out; a test. 

  • A tryout to pick members of a team. 

  • An internal examination set by Eton College. 

adj
  • Attempted on a provisional or experimental basis. 

  • Pertaining to a language form referring to three of something, like people. (See Ambai language for an example.) 

  • Pertaining to a trial or test. 

  • Characterized by having three (usually equivalent) components. 

  • Triple. 

verb
  • To carry out a series of tests on (a new product, procedure etc.) before marketing or implementing it. 

  • To try out (a new player) in a sports team. 

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