Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use painstaking in a sentence

14 example sentences · adjective, noun

Painstaking means carefully attentive to details; studious; diligent in performing a process or procedure. Example: “Classically, cases like this can only be solved through painstaking investigation.”

Examples of painstaking by meaning

adjectiveCarefully attentive to details; studious; diligent in performing a process or procedure.

  • When the thrill of wedgies faded, he put his great brain to work and after months of painstaking experimentation, he emerged from his workshop with a revolutionary kinky invention: the nipple clamp.2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “Toys for kinky girls and boys—It’s not just whips and chains anymore.” (chapter 3), in Weather Balloons Make...

More sentences with painstaking

  • Classically, cases like this can only be solved through painstaking investigation.From the entry classically
  • Her hair is blonde and fine, painted in painstaking detail in the Flemish tradition.2008, Saleema Nawaz, Mother Superior: Stories, Freehand Books, →ISBN. From the entry hypergreen
  • In examining Capote, Clarke follows the course of the precocious writer's life with painstaking attention to gossipy detail.1988 December 11, Elizabeth Pincus, “Truman Capote: The Gossip, The Dirt”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 22, page 7. From the entry immersion
  • I marvel that a mind on the outs with itself should have nevertheless made a painstaking record of its every tremor.1961, Joan Didion, “On Self-Respect”, in Slouching Towards Bethlehem. From the entry on the outs
  • In her forties, energetic and painstaking, she has found that the triangle situation is by far lovedom’s gravest problem.1941, Coronet, volume 10, page 131. From the entry lovedom
  • It's used here to indicate painstaking analysis of the trailer." Zaprudering refers to a detailed extraction of evidence from a limited set of image data.2010 January 18, Erica Sadun, “Zaprudering the invite: Obsessive fun with TUAW”, in TUAW. From the entry Zapruder
  • Inside the prison, the chosen few readied themselves to leave their place of incarceration for three precious, painstaking, painmaking hours on the town.2002, Gavin Evans, Dancing Shoes is Dead: A Tale of Fighting Men in South Africa. From the entry painmaking
  • Because of this isolation, and the lack of visitor 'attractions' deemed plug-worthy, nobody goes to Gabalfa unless they live there, work there, or are writing a painstaking Cardiff history.2014, Dic Mortimer, Cardiff. From the entry plugworthy
  • This painstaking process of checking texts and cultural data rather than dictionaries may seem to be not worth the candle for some (but not all) long-rangers.2002, Alexander Vovin, Building a 'Bum-pa for Sino-Caucasian, page 160. From the entry long ranger
  • Claus's wonderful novel is a chronicle of war in a corner of one small country and a painstaking portrait of the artist as an obnoxious young man.1990 July 1, Suzanne Ruta, “The Artist Is a Pest”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC…. From the entry Claus
  • Warning me that many of the street signs were down, the youth drew for my benefit a rough but ample and painstaking sketch map of the town's salient features.1936, H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth. From the entry salient
  • Using a painstaking technique favored by 15th-century Italians for their most sacred images, Young makes disarmingly beautiful pictures in a loose, almost subjectless language of color and texture and form.1992 May 8, Mitchell Stevens, “Andrew Young”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry subjectless
  • His canvases are worked over with painstaking care, not as the detailist works to delineate buttons and boot-straps, but for harmonies of tender color and the charm of reflected light.1903, Harper's Monthly Magazine - Volume 107, page 638. From the entry detailist

Meaning of painstaking

  1. adjective Carefully attentive to details; studious; diligent in performing a process or procedure.
  2. noun The application of careful and attentive effort.

Full definition of painstaking

Questions about painstaking in a sentence

How do you use painstaking in a sentence?
Painstaking is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Classically, cases like this can only be solved through painstaking investigation.”
What is a short sentence with painstaking?
“Classically, cases like this can only be solved through painstaking investigation.”
What does painstaking mean?
Painstaking means carefully attentive to details; studious; diligent in performing a process or procedure.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: painstaking (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use painstaking in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/painstaking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.