hard-won
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It gives wrong answers with great confidence, and can’t draw on the human factors—judgment calls, unwritten rules and hard-won instincts—that never make it into training data.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 7, 2026
The fighting has hurt their oil sales and is threatening hard-won reputations as oases of calm that are safe for foreign investment.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026
They have fund economics, investor relationships, and hard-won reputations that make fighting for these assets the rational move.
From Barron's • Feb. 24, 2026
Her life has included far more than skating, though, and every one of her students benefit from the hard-won wisdom she learned along the way.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 1, 2026
She and her team worked fast, passing their hard-won decrypts, keys, and code books back to the FBI.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
