hard to say
Difficult to articulate
Hard to say expresses uncertainty or difficulty in making a judgment.
It acknowledges that something resists easy assessment: It's hard to say whether he's telling the truth.
The phrase can deflect questions you'd rather not answer directly, or genuinely signal that available information doesn't support a confident conclusion: How long will it take? Hard to say.
- inexpressibleCannot be put into words
- lost for wordsUnable to express oneself
- awkwardLacking grace or ease
- tongue-tiedUnable to express oneself
- unpronounceableCannot be spoken aloud
mumbled · hesitant · delicate · tricky · complicated · uncertain · beats me · who knows · elusive · ineffable · wordless · stammered · unspeakable · touchy · elephant in the room · sensitive · vague · fumbling
- confusionconfusion, confused, bewilderment, perplexity, baffled
- evasionsno comment, dodge, deflection, hedging, equivocation
- skepticismdoubt, skeptic, doubts, debunker, doubtful
- fillersfiller, gap filler, filler material, caulk, grout
- not reallynot quite, sort of, kind of, maybe, barely
hard to sayobvious
Easily perceived, unmistakable
clear · certain · evident · plain · crystal clear
hard to sayobvious
Easily perceived, unmistakable
plain as day · self-explanatory · goes without saying · transparent · apparent
hard, harder, hardest, hardly, hardness, harden, hardened, hardening, say