exhaustive

play

adjective ex·haus·tive \ ig-ˈzȯ-stiv \

Definition of exhaustive

:including all possibilities :thorough

conducted an exhaustive search

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exhaustively

adverb

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exhaustiveness

noun

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exhaustivity

play \ig-ˌzȯ-ˈsti-və-tē\ noun

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See exhaustive defined for kids

Examples of exhaustive in a Sentence

The list was long but not exhaustive.
after an exhaustive search of our house, we still hadn't found the cat

Recent Examples of exhaustive from the Web

Reuters reporters took an exhaustive look at Taser use by U.S. police officers, documenting 1000-plus incidents in which people — often people with mental or physical illnesses, or substance abuse issues — died following a tasing.

— michelle weber, Longreads, "The Subtleties of Electrocution," 30 Aug. 2017
A less exhaustive conservation effort was undertaken in the early 1990s.

— yvonne wenger, Washington Post, "Dollhouse death scenes are being refurbished for Smithsonian exhibit," 26 Aug. 2017
Robert Caro won his first of two Pulitzers for The Power Broker, his exhaustive 1974 biography of Robert Moses.

— vanityfair.com, "Robert Caro, Ann Coulter, Dick Cavett, and More Weighed In on the Trump Era at East Hampton Library’s Authors Night," 14 Aug. 2017
Experience across the board (Photo: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports) Who knows if that’s even a fully exhaustive list, given how much Indiana likes to rotate along its line.

— zach osterman, The Courier-Journal, "Position primer: IU's defensive improvement all starts up front," 19 July 2017
Burns first rose to national prominence in 1990, with his documentary The Civil War, an exhaustive examination of what remains—at press time, at least—our nation’s darkest hour.

— david kamp, HWD, "Why The Vietnam War Is Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s Most Ambitious Project Yet," 18 July 2017
Burns first rose to national prominence in 1990, with his documentary The Civil War, an exhaustive examination of what remains—at press time, at least—our nation’s darkest hour.

— vanityfair.com, "Why The Vietnam War Is Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s Most Ambitious Project Yet," 12 July 2017
The issue was catapulted into public consciousness in October 2015 by an exhaustive investigation of concurrent surgery at Harvard’s famed Massachusetts General Hospital by The Boston Globe.

— sandra g. boodman, Kaiser Health News, "Double-Booked: When Surgeons Operate On Two Patients At Once," 12 July 2017
Details have come out piecemeal through exhaustive hearings the past few months since Nolan’s house was raided by police in February.

— scott wartman, Cincinnati.com, "Tim Nolan's attorney questions legality of sex trafficking charges," 7 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'exhaustive.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.