painstaking
/ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.93 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "All these painstaking men, considered together, may be said to have completed another species of criticism."
- "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."
- "Earl de Sadist’s pioneering efforts didn’t stop there. 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."
- "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."
- "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."
- "Behold what an abundant recompense attends the small processes of the earth, with the help of a little warm air; and what wealthy returns the industry of the husbandman and the florist is preparing from a few seeds and painstakings."
Etymology
From pains + taking; see take pains. The /ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/ pronunciation which dominates in the United States suggests a reanalysis of the word as pain + staking.
Word Breakdown
- Root: *kʷey-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpeɪnˌsteɪkɪŋ/
- British English: /ˈpeɪnzˌteɪkɪŋ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more painstaking (comparative)
most painstaking (superlative)
pains-taking (alternative, archaic)
painstakings (plural)