tedious

adjective

te·​dious ˈtē-dē-əs 

ˈtē-jəs

: tiresome because of length or dullness : boring

a tedious public ceremony

tediously adverb

tediousness noun

Did you know?

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.”

Synonyms

• arid
• boring
• colorless
• drab
• dreary
• drudging
• dry
• dull
• dusty
• flat
• heavy
• ho-hum
• humdrum
• jading
• jejune
• leaden
• mind-numbing
• monochromatic
• monotonous
• numbing
• old
• pedestrian
• ponderous
• slow
• stale
• stodgy
• stuffy
• stupid
• tame
• tiresome
• tiring
• uninteresting
• wearisome
• weary
• wearying

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.

Recent Examples on the Web

By automating tedious tasks like scheduling, AI allows employees to devote more time to the personal aspects of their jobs, such as conversing with customers, training new recruits and thinking strategically and creatively about how to improve the overall business experience. —Michael Spataro, Forbes, 27 Mar. 2024

There is a didactic quality to this conceit that can grow a bit tedious. —Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

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

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

tedious

adjective

te·​dious ˈtēd-ē-əs 

ˈtē-jəs

: tiring because of length or dullness : boring

tediously adverb

tediousness noun