cursory
Syllables: cur·so·ry/ˈkɜː.sə.ɹi/US/ˈkɝː.sə.ɹi/
cursory adjective: hasty or superficial.
Adjective
cursory (comparative more cursory, superlative most cursory)
- Hasty or superficial.
- cursory glance
- A cursory view of the report revealed his egregious errors.
- Synonyms:
- fleeting, swift, express, fast, expeditious, feverish, fleet, greased lightning, hasty, hectic
- Careless or desultory.
- The cursory inspection missed several irregularities.
- Synonyms:
- unmethodical, negligent, careless, derelict, heedless, irregardless, irrespective, lash, lax, incautious
- Running about; not stationary.
- Synonyms:
- dynamic, mobile, afoot, animate, astir, in motion, moving, on the move, on the wing, under sail
cursory meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
cursory in Tamil
- மேலீடான, மேலோட்டமான, விரைவான, அக்கரையற்ற
cursory in Urdu
- سرسری
cursory in Bengali
- ভাসা ভাসা, দ্রুত
cursory in Malayalam
- casual, perfunctory, desultory
- അശ്രദ്ധമായ, അധികം ശ്രദ്ധയില്ലാതെയുള്ള, കർത്തവ്യമായതു കൊണ്ടുമാത്രം ചെയ്യുന്ന, അലസമായ, ഉദാസീനമായ, അനിയതം
More languagesFewer languages
- cursory in Kannada
- ಗಡಿಬಿಡಿಯ, ಅಸವಸದ, ಆತುರದ, ಅವಸರದ
- cursory in Gujarati
- ઉપરછલ્લું uparchallũ
- cursory in Persian
- سرسری sarsari
Examples of cursory in a sentence
- Most junk mail requires only a cursory glance.
- But the cursory glance my father had taken of my volume by no means assured me that he was acquainted with its contents, and I continued to read with the greatest avidity.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London...
- She accepted these terms, and slid off on the near side, though not till he had stolen a cursory kiss.1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London...
- I may say that that single cursory examination of this awful travesty on Nature would have proved quite sufficient to my desires had I been a free agent.1913 January–May, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Gods of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as...
Synonyms of cursory
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of cursory
| comparative | more cursory |
|---|---|
| superlative | most cursory |
Origin of cursory
Borrowed from Middle French cursoire (“rapid”), from Latin cursorius (“hasty, of a race or running”).
Words formed from cursory
Questions about cursory
- What does cursory mean?
- Cursory means hasty or superficial.
- What is cursory in Tamil?
- Cursory in Tamil is மேலீடான, மேலோட்டமான, விரைவான. See Cursory meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use cursory in a sentence?
- Most junk mail requires only a cursory glance.
- What part of speech is cursory?
- Cursory is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce cursory?
- Cursory is pronounced /ˈkɜː.sə.ɹi/ (UK).
Words near cursory in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cursory (page history and authors); cursory (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cursory (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Cursory (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cursory (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); cursory (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ઉપરછલ્લું (Gujarati) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “cursory.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cursory. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.