rigorous
Americanadjective
-
characterized by rigor; rigidly severe or harsh, as people, rules, or discipline.
rigorous laws.
- Synonyms:
- unyielding , stiff , inflexible , hard , austere , stern
-
severely exact or accurate; precise.
rigorous research.
- Antonyms:
- inaccurate
-
(of weather or climate) uncomfortably severe or harsh; extremely inclement.
- Antonyms:
- mild
-
Logic, Mathematics. logically valid.
adjective
-
characterized by or proceeding from rigour; harsh, strict, or severe
rigorous discipline
-
severely accurate; scrupulous
rigorous book-keeping
-
(esp of weather) extreme or harsh
-
maths logic (of a proof) making the validity of the successive steps completely explicit
Usage
What does rigorous mean? Rigorous is used to describe things characterized by rigor—strict discipline or severe exactness and precision.Describing an experiment or study as rigorous means it was conducted with extreme precision in order to achieve accuracy.Describing an athletic or academic program as rigorous means it is designed to be challenging and focused on strict discipline.If a teacher is known for being rigorous, it means that they are very strict about things like students completing all of their work and following the rules exactly.Example: The are the result of months of rigorous testing.
Related Words
See strict.
Other Word Forms
- overrigorous adjective
- overrigorousness noun
- rigorously adverb
- rigorousness noun
- self-rigorous adjective
- semirigorous adjective
- semirigorousness noun
- unrigorous adjective
- unrigorousness noun
Etymology
Origin of rigorous
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Medieval Latin rigōrōsus; rigor, -ous
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.
On Sunday, Venezuela's National Assembly condemned the boat strikes and vowed to carry out a "rigorous and thorough investigation" into the accusations of a second attack that allegedly killed two survivors.
From BBC
Genuine liberal arts learning requires students to wrestle with the best that has been written and said by the most rigorous thinkers, living and dead, on all sides of the issues.
The case highlights the complex balance in public universities between protecting students’ right to express beliefs and maintaining rigorous academic standards, particularly when assignments require scientific reasoning.
From Salon
Portraits come in many incarnations—the rigorous realism of Holbein, the rococo elegance of Gainsborough, the harsh frankness of Lucian Freud, to name just a few.
Like police work, record-keeping in this place seems less than rigorous.
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.
