meticulous

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkjələs

Adjective

meticulous (comparative more meticulous, superlative most meticulous)

1. Characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details.

   Synonyms: careful, precise, painstaking, rigorous, scrupulous; see also Thesaurus:meticulous

   Antonyms: sloppy, careless, slapdash

   • 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.

2. (archaic) Timid, fearful, overly cautious.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cautious

   Antonyms: aggressive, carefree; see also Thesaurus:careless

Derived terms

• meticulosity, meticulously, meticulousness

Translations

characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details

• 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)
• 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)
• 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)
• Scottish Gaelic: pongail
• Spanish: meticuloso (es), minucioso (es)
• Swedish: minutiös (sv), omsorgsfull (sv)
• Tagalog: malambis
• Turkish: titiz (tr)
• Vietnamese: tỉ mỉ (vi)

Further reading

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