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What is the Difference Between onerous, burdensome, oppressive?
Not to go too heavy on the etymology, but the story behind onerous is at once straightforward and, dare we say, poetic. But perhaps that’s putting the cart before the horse. Onerous rolled into the English language during the 14th century, via Middle French, from the Latin adjective onerosus, "burdensome." That word, in turn, was hitched to the noun onus, meaning "burden" (source too of our word onus, which usually refers to a burden or responsibility). Onus shares an ancient root with the Sanskrit word anas, meaning "cart." So although onerous stresses a sense of laboriousness and often figurative heaviness (especially because something is distasteful, e.g. "the onerous task of cleaning up the mess"), it has a deep connection with a literal weight borne by a person, horse, or other beast of burden.
Synonyms
Examples of onerous in a Sentence
Sharon Begley, Newsweek, 23 June 2008
The first hitch occurred when the state education department took a full six months after the new law was adopted to issue 12 pages of onerous rules and regulations governing Arkansas charter schools.
—Wendy Cole, Time, 10 June 2000
Environmentalism poses stark issues of survival, for humankind and for all those other tribes of creatures over which we have exercised our onerous dominion.
—Marilynne Robinson, The Death of Adam, 1998
Rap tested well, but early on the promoters said they wouldn't be booking any gangsta rap, a move at least partly designed to calm security concerns during the onerous process of complying with the strict mass-gathering laws enacted in the wake of the 1969 festival.
—John Milward, Rolling Stone, 11 Aug. 1994
The government imposed onerous taxes on imports.
had the onerous and stressful job of notifying the families of soldiers killed in action
Barbara A. Perry, Newsweek, 28 Jan. 2025
Countries are, quite predictably, not sticking to their commitments, and their failure to abide by them will increase as the commitments become more onerous.
—The Editors, National Review, 27 Jan. 2025
Buttons, hooks or zippers can become impossible to use with limited muscle control and using medical equipment like a feeding tube can become onerous.
—Zachery Eanes, Axios, 13 Jan. 2025
Requirements for building permits and reviews in the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act — often considered onerous by developers — will be eased for victims of the fires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other communities, according to the order.
—Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, 12 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for onerous 
Dictionary Entries Near onerous
Cite this Entry
“Onerous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/onerous. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.
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onerous
adjective
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