thorough

See also: Thorough

English

Alternative forms

• thoro (informal)

Etymology

From Middle English thoruȝ, þoruȝ, from Old English þuruh, a byform of Old English þurh, whence comes English through. The adjective derives from the preposition and adverb. The word developed a syllabic form in cases where the word was fully stressed: when it was used as an adverb, adjective, or noun, and less commonly when used as a preposition.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈθʌɹə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈθʌɹoʊ/, /ˈθəɹoʊ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  (accents without the hurry–furry merger)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  (accents with the hurry–furry merger)
• Rhymes: -ʌɹə, -ʌɹəʊ

Adjective

thorough (comparative thorougher, superlative thoroughest)

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

   The Prime Minister announced a thorough investigation into the death of a father of two in police custody.

   He is the most thorough worker I have ever seen.

   The infested house needs a thorough cleansing before it will be inhabitable.

2. Utter; complete; absolute.
   • 1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Part I, chapter xviii^[1]:

     I was elected to the Executive Committee of the Vegetarian Society, and made it a point to attend every one of its meetings, but I always felt tongue-tied. Dr. Oldfield once said to me, 'You talk to me quite all right, but why is it that you never open your lips at a committee meeting? You are a drone.' I appreciated the banter. The bees are ever busy, the drone is a thorough idler. And it was not a little curious that whilst others expressed their opinions at these meetings, I sat quite silent. Not that I never felt tempted to speak. But I was at a loss to know how to express myself. All the rest of the members appeared to me to be better informed than I. Then it often happened that just when I had mustered up courage to speak, a fresh subject would be started. This went on for a long time.

Synonyms

• (detailed): comprehensive, rigorous, scrupulous; see also Thesaurus:meticulous or Thesaurus:comprehensive
• (utter; complete; absolute): downright, outright, unmitigated; see also Thesaurus:total

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "not detailed"): cursory, superficial, surface-level

Derived terms

• thoroughbred
• thoroughgoing
• thoroughly
• thoroughness
• thorough-stitch

Translations

detailed

• Arabic: مُفَصَل m (mufaṣal)

  Egyptian Arabic: مفصل m (mufaṣal)

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bengali: (of attention to detail) পুঙ্খানুপুঙ্খ (bn) (puṅkhanupuṅkho)
• Bulgarian: щателен (bg) (štatelen)
• Catalan: minuciós (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 周密 (zh) (zhōumì), 彻底 (zh) (chèdǐ), 完全 (zh) (wánquán), 深入 (zh) (shēnrù)

• Czech: důkladný (cs)
• Danish: grundig, nøje
• Dutch: grondig (nl), diepgaand (nl)
• Esperanto: ĝisfunda (eo)
• Finnish: huolellinen (fi), perinpohjainen (fi), perusteellinen (fi), läpikotainen
• French: minutieux (fr), soigné (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: gründlich (de)
• Hungarian: alapos (hu), beható (hu), mélyreható (hu)
• Icelandic: ítarlegur (is)
• Italian: minuzioso (it), accurato (it), dettagliato (it)
• Khmer: ហ្មត់ចត់ (km) (mɑtcɑt)
• Maori: tōtōpū, ngaio
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: grundig (no)

  Nynorsk: grundig

• Polish: gruntowny (pl)
• Portuguese: minucioso (pt), rigoroso (pt), detalhado (pt)
• Romanian: minuțios (ro), amănunțit (ro)
• Russian: тща́тельный (ru) (tščátelʹnyj), доскона́льный (ru) (doskonálʹnyj), основа́тельный (ru) (osnovátelʹnyj), (of a report, answer) исче́рпывающий (ru) (isčérpyvajuščij), (complete) по́лный (ru) (pólnyj), всесторо́нний (ru) (vsestorónnij)
• Scots: thora, thorae
• Scottish Gaelic: pongail
• Spanish: minucioso (es)
• Swedish: grundlig (sv), utförlig (sv)
• Thai: ละเอียด (th) (lá-ìiat)
• Vietnamese: hoàn toàn (vi)

utter; complete; absolute

• Arabic: شَامِل m (šāmil)

  Egyptian Arabic: شامل m (šāmel)

• Bulgarian: пълен (bg) (pǎlen), съвършен (bg) (sǎvǎršen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: grundig, fuldstændig
• Finnish: perinpohjainen (fi), perusteellinen (fi), läpikotainen
• French: exhaustif (fr)
• Italian: totale (it), completo (it)
• Norwegian: grundig (no) (1-5), nøyaktig (no) (1-5), nøye (1)
• Portuguese: exaustivo (pt) m
• Russian: зако́нченный (ru) (zakónčennyj) (finished) (about man), по́лный (ru) (pólnyj), соверше́нный (ru) (soveršénnyj) (absolute); вы́сший (ru) (výsšij) (about something that can change its power, like pleasure)
• Spanish: exhaustivo (es)
• Swedish: fullständig (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} gedegen (nl)

Preposition

thorough

1. (obsolete) Through. [9th–19th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Ye might haue ſeene the frothy billowes fry
     Vnder the ſhip, as thorough them ſhe went […]

   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], line 109:

     You are contented to be led in triumph
     Thorough the streets of Rome?

Noun

thorough (plural thoroughs)

1. (UK, dialect) A furrow between two ridges, to drain off the surface water.
   • 1733, William Ellis, Chiltern And Vale Farming Explained:

     The Ignorance and Idleness of the Plowman, who either goes so shallow, or plows his Thoroughs so wide, or misses Part of the Ground.