meticulous

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing 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 a semantic loan from French méticuleux.

Pronunciation

(US) IPA^(key): /mɪˈtɪkjɪlɪs/, /mɪˈtɪkjuləs/
Audio (UK): (file)
Rhymes: -ɪkjələs

Adjective

meticulous (comparative more meticulous, superlative most meticulous)

Characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details.
Synonyms: painstaking, fastidious; 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 terms

meticulosity, meticulously, meticulousness

Translations

characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details

Bulgarian: щателен (bg) (štatelen), педантичен (bg) (pedantičen)
Catalan: meticulós (ca), minuciós (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 過細／过细 (zh) (guòxì), 細緻／细致 (zh) (xìzhì)
Czech: pečlivý (cs), puntíčkářský, akurátní (cs)
Danish: minutiøs
Dutch: angstvallig (nl), scrupuleus (nl), meticuleus (nl), acribisch (nl)
Finnish: huolellinen (fi)
French: méticuleux (fr), soigneux (fr)
Galician: meticuloso (gl), minucioso
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)
Ukrainian: сумлі́нний (sumlínnyj), рете́льний (retélʹnyj), педанти́чний (pedantýčnyj)
Vietnamese: tỉ mỉ (vi)