Meticulous

English

Adjective

Meticulous (comparative more Meticulous, superlative most Meticulous)

1. (archaic) Timid, fearful, overly cautious.
2. Characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details.

Synonyms

• careful, precise, painstaking, rigorous, scrupulous
• See also Thesaurus:meticulous

Antonyms

• sloppy, careless, slapdash

Derived terms

• meticulosity, meticulousness

Adverbs for Meticulous

carefully; painfully; disagreeably; uncomfortably; unduly; curiously; extremely; admirably; laudably; unfailingly; systematically; outlandishly.

Thesaurus

OK, Spartan, Spartanic, absolute, accurate, active, advertent, agog, alert, all ears, all eyes, all right, assiduous, astringent, attentive, austere, authoritarian, aware, careful, cautious, censorious, choicy, choosy, close, compliant, concentrated, conforming, conscientious, conscionable, conscious, constant, correct, critical, dead right, delicate, demanding, detailed, devoted, devout, diligent, discriminating, discriminative, dour, duteous, dutiful, earnest, exact, exacting, exigent, exquisite, faithful, fastidious, faultless, fine, finical, finicking, finicky, flawless, full, fussy, grim, harsh, heedful, intense, intent, intentive, just, just right, letter-perfect, loyal, methodical, microscopic, mindful, minute, narrow, nice, niggling, observant, observing, okay, on the ball, on the job, open-eared, open-eyed, openmouthed, orderly, overconscientious, overscrupulous, painstaking, particular, perfect, perfectionist, perfectionistic, pernickety, picayune, picky, practicing, precious, precise, precisian, precisianistic, precisionist, precisionistic, priggish, proper, prudish, punctilious, punctual, puristic, puritanic, refined, regardful, religious, right, rigid, rigorous, rugged, scrupulous, scrutinizing, selective, sensitive, severe, special, specific, stern, straight, straight-up-and-down, strict, stringent, subtle, tender-conscienced, thorough, tough, true, unsparing, watchful

Etymology

From Latin meticulōsus (“full of fear, timid, fearful, terrible, frightful”) from metus (“fear”) and -culōsus, extracted from perīculōsus (“perilous”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA: /mɨˈtɪkjɨlɨs/, //mɨˈtɪkjuləs/

• Audio (UK)

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Translations

characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details

Chinese: Mandarin: 過細 (cmn), 过细 (cmn) (guòxì), 細緻 (cmn), 细致 (cmn) (xìzhì) Czech: pečlivý (cs) Dutch: angstvallig (nl), scrupuleus (nl), meticuleus (nl), acribisch (nl) Finnish: huolellinen (fi) French: méticuleux (fr), soigneux (fr) German: akribisch (de), peinlich genau (de), pedantisch (de) (pej.) Japanese: 細部まで行き届いた (ja) (さいぶまでいきとどいた, saibu made ikitodoita)

Norwegian: omhyggelig (no) Polish: drobiazgowy (pl) m., drobiazgowa (pl) f., drobiazgowe (pl) n. pl. Portuguese: meticuloso (pt) m., meticulosa (pt) f. Romanian: meticulos (ro) m. and n. Russian: скрупулёзный (ru) (skrupuljóznyj), дотошный (ru) (dotóšnyj), педантичный (ru) (pedantíčnyj) Scottish Gaelic: pongail (gd) Swedish: minutiös (sv), omsorgsfull (sv)

External links

• Meticulous in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• Meticulous in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911