Link Centre Dictionary

painstaking

pains·ta·king

UK/ˈpeɪnzˌteɪkɪŋ/ US/ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/ rare

adjective

1.

characterized by extreme care and great effort

  • “conscientious application to the work at hand”
  • “painstaking research”
  • “scrupulous attention to details”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From pains + taking; see take pains. The /ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/ pronunciation which dominates in the United States suggests a reanalysis of the word as pain + staking.

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.