PAINSTAKINGLY Synonyms: 66 Similar and Opposite Words

painstakingly

adverb

as in meticulously

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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.

Recent Examples of painstakingly Patricia Simner, who directs the clinical-microbiology molecular laboratory at the Mayo Clinic, told me that some genetic libraries of pathogens are painstakingly curated for accuracy, but others are peppered with inaccuracies. — Jason Liebowitz, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2026 Power grids currently rely on conventional transformer technology that is painstakingly assembled by hand and has a fundamental design dating back to the 1880s. — Jeremy Hsu, ArsTechnica, 24 Aug. 2026 The team is analyzing microplastics painstakingly collected from plants, rocks, water samples and sticky traps erected along the shoreline. — Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune, 23 Aug. 2026 Careful attention is paid to prepping, buffing, cuticles and nail shape, before polish is painstakingly applied to toes. — Elle Turner, Glamour, 23 Aug. 2026 The lodge was painstakingly rebuilt and reopened early this summer. — David Coggins, Air Mail, 22 Aug. 2026 For the next few minutes, Alex Lifeson stood beside me, and painstakingly showed me how to play that riff. — Kevin Griffin, Rolling Stone, 19 Aug. 2026 What skills, painstakingly developed over decades, could quietly begin to atrophy? — Maria Colacurcio, Fortune, 18 Aug. 2026 Needs to be replaced with the full head, painstakingly washed. — Corinne Low, Time, 7 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for painstakingly

Adverb

Bex Claire Hamell, a houseplant educator and award-winning horticulturist, looks for common pests, including mealybugs, scale, thrips, aphids, and mites, and meticulously treats plants with visible infestations.

— Rachel Gillett, Martha Stewart, 25 Aug. 2026
Prosecutors allege Clancy meticulously planned the killings by sending her husband out to do errands and strangling the children to death with exercise bands in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts, home while he was gone.

— N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today, 24 Aug. 2026

Definition of meticulously

Adverb

Preservation Connecticut’s searchable surveys, built in collaboration with the State Historic Preservation Office, exhaustively document historic barns, mills, artistic places, and town greens in every part of the state.

— Jane Montanaro, Hartford Courant, 20 Aug. 2026
The events surrounding that night have been exhaustively investigated and recounted in numerous stories, documentaries and police investigations.

— Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of exhaustively

Adverb

One way in which Wounaan do so is conscientiously sharing and redistributing food, money, wisdom and the like to foster equity.

— Chenier Carpio Opua, The Conversation, 5 Aug. 2026
By thinking locally, building conscientiously, and operationalizing sustainability in our deployment choices, AI users, companies, and developers can also help ensure that the infrastructure powering our future doesn’t cost us the earth.

— Sasha Luccioni, Time, 3 July 2026

Definition of conscientiously

Adverb

Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which was directed by Robert Zemeckis with animation overseen by Richard Williams, takes every aspect of itself, even the zany silliness of cartoons, completely seriously, while never losing sight of the fun.

— James Grebey, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2026
Two of the people who escaped were seriously injured due to chemical burns.

— ABC News, ABC News, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of seriously

Adverb

Normal in the sense that Shanahan has attentively watched every practice, typically doing so about 30 yards behind the defense.

— Cam Inman, Mercury News, 6 Aug. 2026
The Child has placed his foot on the basket of yarns and has grasped the yarnwinder and gazes attentively at the four spokes that are in the form of a cross.

— Brian Boucher, ARTnews.com, 3 Aug. 2026

Definition of attentively

Adverb

And there is a shocking dearth of evidence to the contrary, given how ardently Peters and her supporters have clung to this narrative for the past six years.

— The Denver Post Editorial Board, Denver Post, 7 July 2026
Kevan Harris, an associate professor of sociology at UCLA who has studied the Iranian diaspora, said some of the ardently monarchist Iranians became disillusioned and demobilized when the war’s initial objective of regime change failed.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2026

Definition of ardently

Adverb

Roberts came away from the conversation excited by how earnestly Heyward embraced that message.

— Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2026
On day two, one of the servers tells me earnestly that a bowl of vegetable soup, consumed properly, should take about half an hour to finish.

— Justin Fenner, Robb Report, 15 Aug. 2026

Definition of earnestly

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“Painstakingly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/painstakingly. Accessed 29 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of painstakingly

adverb

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