exhaustive

This term carries a heavy sense of completion and rigor. It suggests a process where nothing has been left out and every single stone has been overturned. It is frequently used in professional, legal, or scientific contexts to indicate that a result is definitive because the methodology was total. It is often confused with exhausting, but while the latter refers to the feeling of being drained of energy, exhaustive refers to the thoroughness of the work. A process can be exhaustive without being exhausting, though a truly exhaustive investigation often becomes exhausting for the person performing it.