Requiring or showing extraordinary strength, effort, or determination.
Reach for it when praising work of exceptional scale without hiding the people and systems behind it
Cataloguing the flooded archive was a Herculean task completed by dozens of volunteers.
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playful
superhuman
Fits when the achievement seems beyond ordinary capacity
Careful Superhuman erases human limits and can normalize unreasonable expectations.
warm
Fits when courage and sacrifice deserve moral praise
Careful Heroic can romanticize avoidable risk or unpaid overwork.
professional
Fits when the challenge is difficult enough to command respect
Careful Formidable describes the obstacle, while Herculean often praises the effort used against it.
formal
arduous
Fits when the work is prolonged and demanding
Careful Arduous stresses difficulty and not the extraordinary power of the response.
formal
Fits when scale and lasting significance are both exceptional
Careful Monumental can describe importance without the strenuous effort implied by Herculean.
literary
colossal
Fits when physical or numerical scale dominates the description
Careful Colossal can describe a large failure and says nothing about determined effort.
literary
Fits when the amount of ability, labor, or output inspires wonder
Careful Prodigious can praise natural capacity and need not involve hardship.
Herculean task
The Herculean task became manageable after the records were divided by district.
Herculean effort
A Herculean effort by care workers should not excuse chronic understaffing.
Herculean strength
The tale gives its builder Herculean strength and ordinary doubts.
seem Herculean
The move can seem Herculean until each accessible step has an owner.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Vealhurl, Southern England accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 Updated
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