Exhaustive: meaning, example and synonyms
Exhaustiveadj. Thorough and complete; covering every part or possibility.
Example
After an exhaustive search of the ship's logs, the historian concluded that no record of the second voyage had ever existed.
- Part of speech
- adjective
- Synonyms
- thorough, comprehensive, complete, extensive
- Antonyms
- cursory, partial, superficial, incomplete
- Memory tip
- So thorough it exhausts every possibility.
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Check yourself: Exhaustive in context
The report was ______: it covered every school in the district, interviewed hundreds of parents, and reviewed ten years of test data.
Answer: exhaustive. Covering every school and ten years of data is thorough and complete. Nebulous would mean vague, the opposite.
Rather than an ______ catalog of every species in the park, the guidebook offers short profiles of the twenty birds visitors are most likely to see.
Answer: exhaustive. 'Rather than' contrasts a complete catalog with a short selection. Unassuming, untenable and outsize don't describe completeness.