Painstaking

//ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The application of careful and attentive effort. countable, uncountable

    "I esteeme Bocace his Decameron, Rabelais, and the kisses of John the second (if they may be placed under this title) worth the paines-taking to reade them."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Carefully attentive to details; studious; diligent in performing a process or procedure.

    "All these painstaking men, considered together, may be said to have completed another species of criticism."

Adjective
  1. 1
    characterized by extreme care and great effort wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
laboriousassiduityassiduousassiduousnesscarefulclose

Example

More examples

"Each item was described in painstaking detail."

Etymology

From pains + taking; see take pains. The /ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/ pronunciation which dominates in the United States suggests a reanalysis of the word as pain + staking.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.