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)

1. 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.

   • 2024 December 27, Pip Dunn, “Network News: Hitachi pushes on with '810' assembly and testing”, in RAIL, number 1025, page 20:

     Currently, bodyshells for units 810024/025 are on the weld line. […] In the paint shop are bodyshells for 810022/023, which are undergoing a meticulous process to ensure a high-quality finish.

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

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cautious

   Antonyms: aggressive, carefree; see also Thesaurus:careless

Derived terms

• meticulosity, meticulously, meticulousness
• unmeticulous

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 (cs), 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)

characterized by timid, fearful, overly cautious

German: furchtsam (de), übervorsichtig (de)

Further reading

• “meticulous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “meticulous”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.