thorough

adjective thor·ough \ ˈthər-(ˌ)ō , sometimes ˈthȯr- ; ˈthə-(ˌ)rō \

Definition of thorough

1 :carried through to completion :exhaustive

a thorough search

2 a :marked by full detail

a thorough description

b :careful about detail :painstaking

a thorough scholar

c :complete in all respects

thorough pleasure

d :having full mastery (as of an art)

a thorough musician

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thoroughly

adverb

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thoroughness

noun

See thorough defined for English-language learners

See thorough defined for kids

Examples of thorough in a Sentence

… one realized that it was the restaurant's thorough and even comic Frenchness that had made it so entirely New York. —Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2004
Bruce tells me to squat down and Koani sidles up, ears flattened, tail tucked away, and gives my face a thorough licking. —Nicholas Evans, Daily Telegraph, 26 Sept. 1998
The job was uncharacteristically thorough for a Russian contract killing—three different types of bullets riddled Mikho's body. —New Republic, 15 Dec. 1997
… as I look into their black faces, their hope is so thorough and consuming it frightens me. —Bob Shacochis, Harper's, February 1995
a thorough understanding of the rules and regulations
The investigator will have to be thorough.

Recent Examples of thorough from the Web

Dr. Stevenson recommends that everyone get a thorough check by a dermatologist once a year.

— sarah jacoby, SELF, "'Real Housewives' Star Tamra Judge Shared a Photo of Melanoma on Her Butt Cheek," 30 Aug. 2017
Interact in a thorough and meaningful way with your staff, your counterparts and your competitors.

— miamiherald, "The future’s not ours to see, but this is how CEOs prepare for it," 30 Aug. 2017
The long-time investigator was able to view crashes in a thorough and analytical way while also maintaining the kind of compassionate perspective important to handling fatalities, Livaccari said.

— laura mcknight, NOLA.com, "NOPD traffic-fatality investigator mourned after fatal heart attack," 23 Aug. 2017
A disturbing photo of a 4-year old girl in Missouri appears to show her duct taped to a chair at her daycare center, setting off a call from her parents for a thorough investigation.

— malaika jabali, Essence.com, "Parents Demand Answers After Daycare Duct-Tapes 4-Year-Old Girl To Chair," 22 Aug. 2017
Our team has been thorough and have had thoughtful discussions for years about what the right policy was on censoring.

— timothy b. lee, Ars Technica, "Racist Daily Stormer goes down again as Cloudflare drops support," 17 Aug. 2017
In 2015, the RAND Corporation, a think-tank, published the most thorough study yet of schools using high-tech personalised learning.

— The Economist, "EdtechTechnology is transforming what happens when a child goes to school," 22 July 2017
Real-world conditions The RDE test is encouragingly thorough.

— jonathan m. gitlin, Ars Technica, "A diesel emissions test you can’t game? We try it out," 14 July 2017
They were divided on whether Trump Jr. was for or against offering a more thorough disclosure: Inside Mr. Trump’s team, the response to the developments has become a subject of intense dispute.

— margaret hartmann, Daily Intelligencer, "White House Infighting in Overdrive Following Latest Russia Controversy: Reports," 12 July 2017

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