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tedious

adjective
te·​dious | \ ˈtē-dē-əs How to pronounce tedious (audio) , ˈtē-jəs\

Definition of tedious

: tiresome because of length or dullness : boring a tedious public ceremony
Other Words from tedious Synonyms & Antonyms The Long and Uneventful History of Tedious More Example Sentences Learn More about tedious

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Other Words from tedious

tediously adverb
tediousness noun

The Long and Uneventful History of Tedious

Words frequently change their meanings, and some even will go from meaning one thing to meaning something almost opposite (such as nice, which in its earliest use meant "lewd, wanton, dissolute"). Tedious is not one of these words; its meanings may have shifted over the centuries, but they have always had something to do with irksome, boring, or overlong things. The word comes from the Latin taedēre, meaning “to disgust or weary.” Tedious has been in use since the 15th century and has been included in hundreds of dictionaries, although perhaps none have rendered so poetic and succinct a definition as Nathaniel Bailey’s entry in his 1756 New Universal Etymological English Dictionary: “Wearisome by continuance.”

Examples of tedious in a Sentence

Writing a new spreadsheet or word-processing program these days is a tedious process, like building a skyscraper out of toothpicks. — Jeff Goodell, Rolling Stone, 16 June 1994 Another of their assignments was to slow-fly any plane that had a new engine to break it in; that meant flying the aircraft for a tedious hour-and-a-half as slowly as it would possibly go without falling out of the sky. — Doris Weatherford, American Women and World War II, 1990 From there, it became clear that the deposition was going to be neither as undramatic nor as quotidian, and even tedious, as it at first appeared. — Renata Adler, New Yorker, June 23, 1986 He made a tedious 45-minute speech. The work is tedious, but it needs to get done.
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Recent Examples on the Web

 The first is the handling of the stereotyped characters (Welfare Queen, Fortune Cookie, Beirut the Mad Bomber, and so on), which ranges from smart to tedious to overly pleased with its own satire. — Sarah Larson, The New Yorker, "In Season 3, “GLOW” Raises the Stakes," 30 Aug. 2019 And replacing Shakespearean scansion with looser Seuss-ish rhyme schemes would add to the comedy and make the long bouts of exposition at the beginning and end of the play less tedious. — Christopher Arnott, courant.com, "Review: Elm Shakespeare’s ‘Comedy of Errors’ a joyous, joke-based stroll in the park," 19 Aug. 2019 For the past two weeks, the Jacksonville State University Marching Southerners have weathered heat advisories and long, tedious rehearsals packed into 13-hour days. — Anna Beahm | Abeahm@al.com, al, "Jacksonville State’s Marching Southerners: Bigger and better than ever?," 18 Aug. 2019 The play's first section feels attenuated and proves tedious despite the sterling work by the game-for-anything child performers, while the second half falls victim to narrative gimmickry. — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter, "'Make Believe': Theater Review," 16 Aug. 2019 But other than the Antonio Brown updates, episode 1 feels tedious. — Jon Becker, The Mercury News, "Was Raiders’ first ‘Hard Knocks’ episode really that bad?," 7 Aug. 2019 And many companies struggle to invest in the mundane and tedious details that are at the heart of most breaches. — Will Carter For Cnn Business Perspectives, CNN, "Companies get off too easy with data breaches. Bigger fines are a good place to start," 31 July 2019 But first, the tail end of the tedious July news drought. — Hayden Dingman, PCWorld, "This week in games: Origin makes a PC with every modern console inside, Netflix's Witcher trailer," 26 July 2019 Home runs are one way (though purists find too many as tedious as none at all). — Ann Killion, SFChronicle.com, "Juicing — balls, not people — again tests baseball’s credibility," 10 July 2019

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

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First Known Use of tedious

15th century, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for tedious

Middle English, from Late Latin taediosus, from Latin taedium — see tedium

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More Definitions for tedious

tedious

adjective
How to pronounce tedious (audio)

English Language Learners Definition of tedious

: boring and too slow or long

See the full definition for tedious in the English Language Learners Dictionary

tedious

adjective
te·​dious | \ ˈtē-dē-əs How to pronounce tedious (audio) , ˈtē-jəs\

Kids Definition of tedious

: tiring because of length or dullness a tedious explanation a tedious job

Other Words from tedious

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