onerous
/ˈɑnəɹəs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.92 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Imposing or constituting a physical, mental, or figurative load which can be borne only with effort; burdensome.
Example Sentences
- "That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones, he had various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable."
- "Again, and more intensely than ever, she desired a fixed occupation,—no matter how onerous, how irksome."
- "[I]t has become an onerous duty, a wearisome and distasteful task."
- "The striker's job was onerous, too, because there was so little "give" in the metal, and the perpetual jarring was indeed trying to the muscles."
- "However, given current sensibilities about individual privacy and data protection, the recording of oral data is becoming increasingly onerous for researchers[.]"
- "People with diabetes mellitus rely predominantly on finger pricking to measure blood levels of glucose, which can be onerous."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃en(H)- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃én(H)os Proto-Italic *onos Latin onus Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ŏ̄dsos? Old Latin -ōssus Latin -ōsus Latin onerosuslbor. Old French onereus Middle French onereuxbor. Middle English onerous English onerous Inherited from Middle English onerous, borrowed from Middle French onereux, from Old French onereus, a learned borrowing from Latin onerosus, from onus (“burden”) + -ōsus. Compare exonerate.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɑnəɹəs/
- British English: /ˈɒnəɹəs/
Inflected Forms
more onerous (comparative)
most onerous (superlative)