operose

operose
 
[op-uh-rohs]

 
adjective: done with or involving much labor
 
Explanation

 
Operose describes something that requires a great deal of work. The word might appear when a project demands a lot of manual labor or unrelenting focus. An operose task may be difficult, but it's usually worth it in the end.

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operose
American 

[op-uh-rohs]
/ ;;p ;;ro;s /
adjective
industrious, as a person.

done with or involving much labor.

Operose: Word of the Day

operose
British 
/ ;;p;;r;;s /
adjective
laborious

industrious; busy

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms
operosely adverb
operoseness noun
Etymology
Origin of operose

First recorded in 1530–50; from Latin oper;sus “busy, active,” equivalent to oper- (stem of opus ) “work” + -;sus -ose 1

Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Stephens called it “dry operose quackery;...;mere chaff not studied from nature, and therefore worthless, never felt, and therefore useless”.

From Nature • Oct. 23, 2018

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He reposes on lion skins, suggestive of swift strength, leisurely superior to operose muscularity.

From Time Magazine Archive


The girls marched past progressively tougher words, from heroine, blossom and dentifrice to operose, miscible and quadrumanous.

From Time Magazine Archive


To most persons this mode of confutation was by far too operose; but they might have confoundedly puzzled the philosopher in verbal disputation.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 484, April 9, 1831 by Various

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In the execution, it was an operose business on both sides of the water.

From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 04 (of 12) by Burke, Edmund