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thorough

adjective

Simple meaning

Careful and complete, not missing any detail.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

thuroh

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈθɝoʊ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Painstaking and careful not to miss or omit any detail.

  2. Utter; complete; absolute.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Painstaking and careful not to miss or omit any detail.

Used this way, thorough is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Gentle
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Careful and exacting
Usage feel
Precise and approving

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use thorough

  • “He is the most thorough worker I have ever seen.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

thorough knowledgethorough studythorough understandingthorough investigationthorough examinationthorough analysisthorough discussionafter thorough

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • thoroughlyadverbDerived adverb

    In an exhaustive manner.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • thorough bassnounCompound term

    A bass part written out in full and accompanied by numbers to indicate the chords to be played.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: painstaking and careful not to miss

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.