Diligent — A Vocabulary Story
Checking Everything Twice
Kwame's teacher had written 'diligent' in his school report last term.
Diligent means working hard and being careful with what you do; showing steady, thorough effort and attention to detail.
At the time, Kwame hadn't known whether to feel proud or boring.
Boring seemed more likely.
His best friend Seb got 'creative'. His classmate Fatou got 'spirited'. Kwame got 'diligent'.
But that was before the science fair.
For three weeks, Kwame worked. He checked his measurements twice. He rewrote his introduction when it sounded muddled. He stayed in at lunch on Tuesday to fix his graph — even though it was pizza day.
It wasn't always easy. Some evenings he'd rather have been watching television. Some mornings he'd stare at his notes and feel like his brain had simply packed up and left. But he'd pick up his pencil anyway, take a breath, and keep going.
On the morning of the fair, the school hall smelled of nerves and Blu-Tack.
Kwame set up his display quietly, diligently straightening each label and checking each fact one final time. Not because anyone was watching. Just because that was how he did things.
Mr Bassett stopped in front of it for a long time, hands clasped behind his back, saying nothing.
"This is exceptional work," he said finally, almost to himself.
Kwame didn't reply. He just looked at his project — really looked at it — and thought that maybe diligent wasn't so boring after all.
Maybe it was exactly what he wanted to be.
Word Definition
diligent
meaning
working hard and being careful with what you do; showing steady, thorough effort and attention to detail
synonyms
hard-working · industrious · conscientious · thorough · painstaking
antonyms
lazy · idle · careless
example sentence
She is a diligent student who always finishes her homework.