tedium

noun

te·​di·​um ˈtē-dē-əm How to pronounce tedium (audio)
1
: the quality or state of being tedious : tediousness
also : boredom
2
: a tedious period of time

Examples of tedium in a Sentence

The movie was three hours of tedium. I took a day off to relieve the tedium of work.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
For the director’s detractors, these can be chunks of pure tedium, indicative of his hands-off, fly-on-the wall approach to cinema. Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 24 Apr. 2025 Long-distance truckers have for decades used them to tolerate the tedium of the road. Paul Tough Eric Jason Martin Krish Seenivasan Brian St. Pierre, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2025 Relieving the tedium of daily life, especially for the women who endure it most, has been the powerful motivation for many of the most innovative businesses of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Pat Butler, Sportico.com, 16 May 2025 But at that difficulty, humans had only been able to force their way through the slaughter level in multi-segment runs, exploiting save states to preserve their best performances and break up the nerve-wracking tedium. ArsTechnica, 22 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for tedium

Word History

Etymology

Latin taedium disgust, irksomeness, from taedēre to disgust, weary

First Known Use

1662, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of tedium was in 1662

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Tedium.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tedium. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.

Kids Definition

tedium

noun
te·​di·​um ˈtēd-ē-əm How to pronounce tedium (audio)
: the quality or state of being tedious : boredom

More from Merriam-Webster on tedium

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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