painstaking
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
Related Words
Painstaking, careful, meticulous, conscientious all describe persons or behavior demonstrating attention to detail and effective task performance. painstaking stresses diligent and assiduous attention to detail in achieving a desired objective: a painstaking technician; the painstaking editing of a manuscript. Careful , the most general in sense of these words, implies serious intent to perform well and accurately whatever task one has in hand: a careful housepainter; a careful study of the social structure of gangs. Meticulous suggests extreme attention to details, especially the most minute, coupled with an almost obsessive desire to avoid error: a meticulous silversmith, every detail finished to perfection; fussily meticulous about matching shoes and clothing. Conscientious stresses scrupulous effort to obey one's sense of moral obligation to perform tasks well: a conscientious public defender; a conscientious description of the robbery.
Other Word Forms
- painstakingly adverb
- painstakingness noun
Etymology
Origin of painstaking
Explanation
If you notice that painstaking is composed of pains and taking, you already have a pretty clear sense of what this adjective means: to be painstaking is to be so careful, so meticulous, so thorough, that it hurts. Painstaking is most commonly paired with detail — in fact, writers might like to avoid the phrase “painstaking detail” as clichéd. In contemporary usage, the agony implied by the word often seems to be shared by both the person who makes a painstaking effort and the person confronted with the fruits of that labor: “Gertrude’s ability to appear politely interested was tested as her dinner companion related his painstaking attempts to establish himself as the true heir to the British throne.”
Vocabulary lists containing painstaking
List 8
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Hatchet
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The Haunting of Hill House
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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.
As the jeweler quietly continued working on the white-gold-and-platinum bracelet, hole by painstaking hole, she was interrupted by an observer, a compact 58-year-old man.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
The international research team attached tiny GPS trackers to 69 ravens -- an impressive number considering the painstaking work in trapping the particularly observant birds.
From Barron's • Mar. 12, 2026
Through painstaking renovations and a bit of reality TV magic.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 4, 2026
At the same time, low-paid workers there have long been carrying out the unseen and painstaking task of manually categorising the vast amounts of data used to train the world's AI tools.
From BBC • Feb. 16, 2026
Father Amadi rolled his eyes, speaking with a painstaking slowness, and although Amaka laughed, she did not take the paper.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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.
