thoroughgoing
Americanadjective
-
doing things thoroughly.
-
carried out to the full extent; thorough.
-
complete; unqualified.
a thoroughgoing knave.
adjective
-
extremely thorough
-
(usually prenominal) absolute; complete
thoroughgoing incompetence
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of thoroughgoing
Explanation
Anything thoroughgoing is comprehensive — it pays extremely careful attention to details. Your thoroughgoing research most likely involved endless hours of sifting through multiple sources. A thoroughgoing paint job will be neatly edged and precisely done, and a thoroughgoing government reform will involve a huge, involved overhaul of the system. This adjective has an old-fashioned sound these days, when thorough usually works just as well. Both words come from the Old English þuruh, "from end to end and side to side."
Vocabulary lists containing thoroughgoing
30 GRE Words Beginning with "T" "U" "V" and "W"
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Twelve Years a Slave
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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.
“The Bloody Crossroads,” published in 1987, isn’t the kind of book you expect a journalist to write: a collection of perceptive, thoroughgoing literary essays on important writers from Henry Adams to Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 26, 2025
On the one hand, he was a thoroughgoing modernist.
From Washington Post • Jan. 14, 2023
Rosalía, “Motomami” Another thoroughgoing work of pop scholarship, this one from a Spanish singer, songwriter and producer for whom cultural boundaries exert all the weight of ink on a mapmaker’s paper.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2022
It’s a title that, in its thoroughgoing lack of self-awareness, matches this book’s contents.
From New York Times • Aug. 17, 2022
In short, the Quaker petition for an end of the slave trade was really a stalking horse for a more radical and thoroughgoing scheme to end the institution of slavery itself.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
