meticulous

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin meticulōsus (“full of fear, timid, fearful, terrible, frightful”), from metus (“fear”) and -culōsus, extracted from perīculōsus (“perilous”). Sense of "characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details" is from French méticuleux.

PronunciationEdit

(US) IPA^(key): /mɨˈtɪkjɨlɨs/, /mɨˈtɪkjuləs/
Audio (UK) (file)
Rhymes: -ɪkjələs

AdjectiveEdit

meticulous (comparative more meticulous, superlative most meticulous)

Characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details.
Synonyms: careful, precise, painstaking, rigorous, scrupulous, fastidious, thorough; see also Thesaurus:meticulous

Antonyms: sloppy, careless, slapdash

meticulous search

meticulous investigation

meticulous knowledge

meticulous report
- 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Roosevelt's Fireside Chat, 28 July 1943:
  The meticulous care with which the operation in Sicily was planned has paid dividends. Our casualties in men, in ships and materiel have been low—in fact, far below our estimate.
(archaic) Timid, fearful, overly cautious.
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cautious

Antonyms: aggressive, carefree; see also Thesaurus:careless

Derived termsEdit

meticulosity, meticulously, meticulousness

TranslationsEdit

characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details

Bulgarian: щателен (bg) (štatelen), педантичен (bg) (pedantičen)
Catalan: meticulós (ca), minuciós (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 過細 (zh), 过细 (zh) (guòxì), 細緻 (zh), 细致 (zh) (xìzhì)
Czech: pečlivý (cs), puntíčkářský, akurátní
Danish: minutiøs
Dutch: angstvallig (nl), scrupuleus (nl), meticuleus (nl), acribisch
Finnish: huolellinen (fi)
French: méticuleux (fr), soigneux (fr)
German: akribisch (de), peinlich genau, pedantisch (de) (pej.), minutiös (de), minuziös (de)
Greek: επιμελής (el) (epimelís)
Hungarian: aprólékos (hu)
Indonesian: teliti (id)
Italian: meticoloso (it)
Japanese: 細部まで行き届いた (さいぶまでいきとどいた, saibu made ikitodoita), 几帳面な (きちょうめんな, kichōmen na)
Luxembourgish: akribesch (lb)
Macedonian: акрибичен (akribičen)
Maori: mārehe, uhupoho, whakautiuti
Norwegian: omhyggelig
Polish: drobiazgowy (pl), skrupulatny (pl)
Portuguese: meticuloso (pt)
Romanian: meticulos (ro)
Russian: скрупулёзный (ru) (skrupuljóznyj), дото́шный (ru) (dotóšnyj), педанти́чный (ru) (pedantíčnyj), тщательный (ru) (tščatelʹnyj), въедливый (ru) (vʺjedlivyj), доскональный (ru) (doskonalʹnyj)
Scottish Gaelic: pongail
Spanish: meticuloso (es), minucioso (es)
Swedish: minutiös (sv), omsorgsfull (sv)
Tagalog: malambis
Turkish: titiz (tr)
Vietnamese: tỉ mỉ (vi)