precise

See also: précise, precisé, and précisé

English

Alternative forms

• præcise (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle French précis, from Latin praecisus, perfect passive participle of praecīdere, from prae- (“before, in front”) +‎ caedere (“cut; strike”), cognate with English hit. Related to English incise. Doublet of précis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈsaɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪs
• Hyphenation: pre‧cise

Adjective

precise (comparative more precise or preciser, superlative most precise or precisest)

1. (loosely) Both exact and accurate.

   Antonyms: inexact, imprecise

   • 1921, Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind:

     A memory is "precise" when the occurrences that would verify it are narrowly circumscribed: for instance, "I met Jones" is precise as compared to "I met a man." A memory is "accurate" when it is both precise and true, i.e. in the above instance, if it was Jones I met.

   • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎, page 7:

     Individually, some of these definitions fall into the common definitional trap of being overly precise.

2. (sciences, engineering, of data points, strictly) Consistent, clustered close together, agreeing with each other (this does not mean that they cluster near the true, correct, or accurate value).

   Antonyms: imprecise; inconsistent, varying

   Coordinate term: accurate

3. Adhering too much to rules; prim or punctilious.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:meticulous

Derived terms

• precisely
• prissy (possibly)
• to be precise

Translations

exact

American Sign Language: SmallO@NearTipThumb-PalmDown-SmallO@CenterChesthigh-PalmUp CirclesSurface Contact Arabic: مَضْبُوط (maḍbūṭ), دَقِيق (ar) (daqīq) Armenian: ճիշտ (hy) (čišt), ճշգրիտ (hy) (čšgrit) Azerbaijani: dəqiq (az) Belarusian: дакла́дны (dakládny) Bulgarian: то́чен (bg) (tóčen), преци́зен (bg) (precízen) Catalan: precís (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 準確 / 准确 (zh) (zhǔnquè), 正確 / 正确 (zh) (zhèngquè), 精確 / 精确 (zh) (jīngquè) Czech: přesný (cs) Danish: præcis (da) Dutch: nauwkeurig (nl), precies (nl) Esperanto: preciza (eo) Estonian: täpne (et) Finnish: tarkka (fi) French: précis (fr) Galician: preciso (gl) Georgian: ზუსტი (zusṭi) German: präzise (de), genau (de) Greek: ακριβής (el) (akrivís) Ancient: ἀκριβής (akribḗs), ἀτρεκής (atrekḗs) Hungarian: pontos (hu) Ingrian: tocnoi Irish: cruinn, beacht, gonta, pointeáilte Italian: preciso (it), esatto (it), accurato (it) Japanese: 正確な (ja) (せいかくな, seikaku na), 精密な (ja) (せいみつな, seimitsu na), 厳密な (ja) (げんみつな, genmitsu na) Khmer: ត្រឹម (km) (trəm) Korean: 정확한 (ko) (jeonghwak-han) Latin: exāctus Latvian: precīzs Lithuanian: tikslus (lt) Macedonian: то́чен (tóčen), пре́цизен (précizen) Mongolian: нарийн (mn) (nariin) Norwegian: Bokmål: presis (no), nøyaktig (no) Occitan: precís (oc) Persian: دقیق (fa) (daqiq), پرسون (parsun) Polish: dokładny (pl), precyzyjny (pl) Portuguese: preciso (pt) Russian: то́чный (ru) (tóčnyj) Scottish Gaelic: pongail Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: точан, тачан, прецизан Roman: točan (sh), tačan (sh), precizan (sh) Slovak: presný Slovene: natančen Spanish: preciso (es), concreto (es) Swedish: precis (sv), noggrann (sv), noga (sv), exakt (sv) Thai: แม่นยำ (th) (mɛ̂n-yam) Turkish: dakik (tr), kesin (tr) Ukrainian: то́чний (uk) (tóčnyj), докла́дний (dokládnyj) West Frisian: preciis

(sciences) clustered close together

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Dutch: precijs Finnish: täsmällinen (fi), tarkka (fi) German: exakt (de) Interlingua: precise Japanese: 厳密な (げんみつな, genmitsu na), 正確な (せいかくな, seikaku na) Portuguese: preciso (pt) Russian: please add this translation if you can Swedish: noggrann (sv) West Frisian: preciis

See also

• repeatable

Verb

precise (third-person singular simple present precises, present participle precising, simple past and past participle precised)

1. (nonstandard, European Union documents, transitive) To make or render precise; to specify.
   • 2011, Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the Common Fisheries Policy:

     This proposal for a new basic regulation is justified because there is a need to precise the objectives of the CFP.

Derived terms

• precising definition

Translations

to specify

Bulgarian: уточнявам (bg) (utočnjavam), прецизирам (bg) (preciziram) Estonian: täpsustama French: préciser (fr) German: präzisieren (de) Polish: precyzować (pl) Spanish: precisar (es), especificar (es), concretar (es), pormenorizar (es), detallar (es)

Anagrams

• percies, pierces, recipes, piecers, recipés

Galician

Verb

precise

1. inflection of precisar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Italian

Adjective

precise

1. feminine plural of preciso

Participle

precise

1. feminine plural of preciso

Verb

precise

1. third-person singular past historic of precidere

Anagrams

• perisce

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pɾeˈsi.zi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /pɾeˈsi.zi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /pɾeˈsi.ze/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /pɾɨˈsi.zɨ/

Verb

precise

1. inflection of precisar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɾeˈθise/ [pɾeˈθi.se] (Spain)
• IPA^(key): /pɾeˈsise/ [pɾeˈsi.se] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -ise
• Syllabification: pre‧ci‧se

Verb

precise

1. inflection of precisar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative