rigour

American

[rig-er] / ˈrɪg ər /

noun

Chiefly British.

a variant of rigor.

rigour British

/ ˈrɪɡə /

noun

harsh but just treatment or action
a severe or cruel circumstance; hardship

the rigours of famine
strictness, harshness, or severity of character
strictness in judgment or conduct; rigorism
maths logic logical validity or accuracy
obsolete rigidity

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of rigour

C14: from Latin rigor

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.

President Emmanuel Macron praised Jospin on X for his "rigour, his courage and his ideal of progress".

From Barron's • Mar. 23, 2026

It added that "rigour and ongoing scientific discussion" was important for a clinical trial, "particularly one as complex as Pathways".

From BBC • Feb. 20, 2026

"A useful and enriching knowledge of Christianity and more widely the world's main religious and philosophical traditions, studied with academic rigour, will be the ambition of the new syllabus."

From BBC • Feb. 3, 2026

The president promised "strong and structural decisions" to "restore rigour, responsibility and ambition in the governance of national sport".

From Barron's • Jan. 1, 2026

Their new science was organized around the virtues of a juge d’instruction: intellectual rigour, a set of formalized procedures, a quest for a complete proof, a confidence that one need only answer to other professionals.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023