dureté

hardness

noun dür-TEH Rare

Also means

harshness

Usage Note

Dureté covers both a physical property (la dureté d'un minéral — mineral hardness on the Mohs scale) and a moral quality (la dureté de coeur — hard-heartedness). The spelling retains the accent on the e throughout. The adjective dur and adverb durement belong to the same family and are much more frequent in everyday speech.

Examples

"La dureté du diamant le rend irremplaçable en industrie."

Natural Translation

The hardness of diamond makes it irreplaceable in industry.

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