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What Is the Difference Between cursory, superficial, and shallow?
Let your cursor linger long enough on our pages, and you’ll be surprised at how much you can quickly discover. Consider the entry for cursory, for example. If you surmise after a mere cursory glance that there’s not much to know about a word with a single sense (“hastily done or made”), you may want to hold your horses. There’s so much to find, including a helpful guide to choosing synonyms of cursory, such as shallow and superficial, that also describe things done with a lack of attention or care. There’s also an etymology section, where one learns that cursory was borrowed from the Medieval Latin adjective cursōrius, which described things that were swift or related to running, and which in turn comes from the Latin noun cursor, meaning “runner.” This fact may prompt you to jog over to the entries of other cursor descendants, such as cursorial (“adapted to or involving running,” as in “cursorial insects”) and, well, cursor.
Examples of cursory in a Sentence
Paul Iddon, Forbes.com, 13 June 2025
All of this is given a very, very cursory recap that makes this incredible, traumatic mission feel like an underwhelming jaunt in Lee’s life.
—James Grebey, Vulture, 5 Jan. 2024
Many rejections have been cursory, simply informing researchers that their projects no longer meet agency priorities.
—Paisley Currah, New Yorker, 27 May 2025
In David Silver’s new book, Vintage Rolex: New Edition: The Largest Collection in the World, there’s something for everyone—even those with a cursory interest in the Crown.
—Victoria Gomelsky, Robb Report, 26 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for cursory
Cite this Entry
“Cursory.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cursory. Accessed 30 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
cursory
adjective
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