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I’m looking for a word to describe a professional that is not necessarily talented, but is always giving his best effort on every assignment. The best I could come up with is diligent.

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  • Have you had any thoughts so we do not duplicate your researches? Any particular field of activity, work, school, home, ...?
    – mdewey
    Nov 1, 2020 at 14:07
  • Can you give more information about how they give their best? I'm drawing a blank on common words that mean this in a general sense, so I suspect people would use more specific words or phrases. Best I've come up with is "stalwart" or "dependable", but neither means what you're asking for, stalwart is quite uncommon and both of them, though mostly positive, are not 100% positive affect I'd say. Nov 1, 2020 at 14:09
  • A word with mostly negative affect is "perfectionist" -- and of course many would say a perfectionist does not give their best at all Nov 1, 2020 at 14:10
  • I edited the description to try being more specific. Thank you for your help! Nov 1, 2020 at 15:02

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If someone is described as conscientious, that doesn't necessarily imply they are good at their job - just that they want to be good (though obviously "the wish is father to the deed" in many cases).

conscientiousness
The quality of wishing to do one's work or duty well and thoroughly.

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  • Tha's exactly the word I was looking for. Thank you! Such a pity that it's a long/complicated word. I planned on using it for marketing. Nov 1, 2020 at 17:40
  • diligent is very close in meaning (though it tends to emphasise making effort more than taking care), but both that and assiduous are at least as "complicated" (assuming what you mean there is erudite, unfamiliar to the less-well-educated :) Nov 1, 2020 at 17:54
  • I think diligent is good too. In fact when I hear diligent, I immediately think of the phrase "due diligence", because most of the times I hear that word it's in that context. Due diligence is a legal phrase (comes up in the context of putting a formerly private company on the public stock exchange) - so there are serious consequences if you fail at it. Because of that, "diligent" sounds to me like it likely means successful effort. Nov 4, 2020 at 20:15
  • By the way, happy you posted here Edson, but if it's useful to you and you're not in the habit, I bet if you look up "diligent" in a thesaurus you're likely to find both the words @FumbleFingersReinstateMonica suggested Nov 4, 2020 at 20:19

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