Standard Lemma guide

operose

adj · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈɒpəɹəʊs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of a person: busy, industrious, or painstaking.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Made with or requiring a lot of labour; painstaking, laborious.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Tedious, wearisome.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective satellite

Meaning 4

characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • worked their arduous way up the mining valley
  • a grueling campaign
  • hard labor
  • heavy work
  • heavy going
  • spent many laborious hours on the project
  • set a punishing pace

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: arduous, backbreaking, grueling, gruelling, hard, heavy, laborious, punishing, toilsome

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Latin operōsus.