painstaking

painstaking — adjective

1. done with great care, checking each small part and spending plenty of time to ge

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

done with great care, checking each small part and spending plenty of time to get it right.

Example

The restorer did painstaking work on the temple doors for six weeks.

collocation: painstaking work

Lina made a painstaking chart of every bus stop in town.

pattern: adjective before noun

Common collocations
  • painstaking work
  • painstaking research
  • painstaking detail
  • painstaking checks
  • painstaking repair
Synonyms
  • careful

    broader and more everyday, without the strong idea of long effort

  • thorough

    focuses on covering every part of a task completely

  • meticulous

    very close in meaning, but often even more strongly about tiny details

Antonyms
  • careless

    shows too little attention and allows mistakes

  • rushed

    done too quickly to check details properly

Grammar Patterns

painstaking work

be painstaking about details

be painstaking in your research

Usage Note

Often describes work, research, or checking rather than personality alone. When it describes a person, the idea is that the person pays close attention to small details.

Common Mistakes

She is painstaking to her homework.
She is painstaking about her homework.
use 'about' for the thing you check carefully.
The team made a painstakingly report.
The team made a painstaking report.
use the adjective painstaking before a noun.

painstaking — noun

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

For adjective sense 1, painstaking means more than simply being careful. Careful is broader and often just means avoiding mistakes. Thorough stresses covering every part of a task from start to finish. Meticulous is very close, but it usually points even more strongly to very tiny details and can sometimes suggest someone is almost too exact. Diligent focuses on steady hard work, even when the task does not involve fine detail. So a student can be diligent about homework, but a restorer is painstaking when every crack, date, and colour is checked slowly. You might write a thorough summary, but do painstaking repair on an old clock.

careful ↗thorough ↗meticulous ↗diligent

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Painstaking grew in English from the phrase take pains, where pain once meant effort or trouble rather than physical hurt. From that idea, painstaking first described work done with patient effort and later also named that careful effort itself. The older sense of pain came into English through French from Latin.