painstaking
/ˈpeɪnzˌteɪkɪŋ/US/ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/
painstaking adjective: carefully attentive to details; studious; diligent in performing a process or procedure.
Adjective
painstaking (comparative more painstaking, superlative most painstaking)
- Carefully attentive to details; studious; diligent in performing a process or procedure.
- All these painstaking men, considered together, may be said to have completed another species of criticism.1781, James Harris, Philological Inquiries
- It is hoped to feature the historic vehicles to be found on the line in a future article, so that full justice may be done to the painstaking work of renovation on many of them, such as the North Eastern Railway Coach Group's NER autocoach No 3453.1979 August, Michael Harris, “A line for all reasons: the North Yorkshire Moors Railway”, in Railway World, page 415
Noun
painstaking (countable and uncountable, plural painstakings)
- The application of careful and attentive effort.
- I esteeme Bocace his Decameron, Rabelais, and the kisses of John the second (if they may be placed under this title) worth the paines-taking to reade them.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 10, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
- It is not by a flight of imagination that you gain the ascents of spiritual experience. It is by the toils and the watchings and the painstakings of a solid obedience.c. 1836, Thomas Chalmers, Lectures on the Romans
painstaking meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
painstaking in Urdu
- محنتی
painstaking in Bengali
- অতিশয় যত্নশীল
painstaking in Malayalam
- അദ്ധ്വാനിക്കുന്ന, പ്രയാസപ്പെടുന്ന, കഷ്ടപ്പെട്ട് ജോലിചെയ്യുന്ന, ജാഗ്രതയായിരിക്കുന്ന
painstaking in Kannada
- ಎಚ್ಚರಿಕೆ ವಹಿಸುವ, ಶ್ರಮ ತೆಗೆದುಕೊಳ್ಳುವ, ಜಾಗರೂಕ, ಎಚ್ಚರಿಕೆಯ, ತುಂಬಾ ತೊಂದರೆಯ, ತೊಡಕಿನ
Examples of painstaking in a sentence
- Classically, cases like this can only be solved through painstaking investigation.
- Her hair is blonde and fine, painted in painstaking detail in the Flemish tradition.
- In examining Capote, Clarke follows the course of the precocious writer's life with painstaking attention to gossipy detail.
Forms of painstaking
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more painstaking |
| superlative | most painstaking |
| alternative form (archaic) | pains-taking |
| Noun | |
| plural | painstakings |
Origin of painstaking
From pains + taking; see take pains. The /ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/ pronunciation which dominates in the United States suggests a reanalysis of the word as pain + staking.
Words formed from painstaking
Questions about painstaking
- What does painstaking mean?
- Painstaking means carefully attentive to details; studious; diligent in performing a process or procedure.
- What is painstaking in Urdu?
- Painstaking in Urdu is محنتی. See Painstaking meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is painstaking?
- Painstaking can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce painstaking?
- Painstaking is pronounced /ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/ (US).
Words near painstaking in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: painstaking (page history and authors); painstaking (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); painstaking (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); painstaking (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); painstaking (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-painstaking.wav.
Cite this entry: “painstaking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/painstaking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.