meticulous
American Heritage Dictionary:
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me·tic·u·lous
(mĭ-tĭk'yə-ləs) 
adj.
meticulously me·tic'u·lous·ly adv.
adj.
- Extremely careful and precise.
- Extremely or excessively concerned with details.
[From Latin metīculōsus, timid, from metus, fear.]
meticulosity me·tic'u·los'i·ty (-lŏs'ĭ-tē) or me·tic'u·lous·ness n.meticulously me·tic'u·lous·ly adv.
SYNONYMS meticulous, painstaking, careful, scrupulous, fastidious, punctilious. These adjectives mean showing or marked by attentiveness to all aspects or details. Meticulous and painstaking stress extreme care: "He had throughout been almost worryingly meticulous in his business formalities" (Arnold Bennett). Repairing the fine lace entailed slow and painstaking work. Careful suggests circumspection and solicitude: A careful examination of the gem showed it to be fake. Scrupulous suggests care prompted by conscience: "Cynthia was scrupulous in her efforts to give no trouble" (Winston Churchill). Fastidious implies concern, often excessive, for the requirements of taste: "Your true lover of literature is never fastidious" (Robert Southey). Punctilious specifically applies to minute details of conduct: "The more unpopular an opinion is, the more necessary is it that the holder should be somewhat punctilious in his observance of conventionalities generally" (Samuel Butler).
Fowler's Modern English Usage:
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meticulous
is derived from the Latin word metus 'fear', and in the 16th century and 17th century it had a corresponding meaning 'fearful, timid'. Then the word went out of use, only to reappear in the early 19th century in a completely different sense, 'over-careful about details'. This was the meaning known to the Fowler brothers when they wrote The King's English at the turn of the century, and they did not care for it, classing it among the 'stiff, full-dress, literary, or out-of-the-way words'. Between then and now, it lost (almost completely, but not always quite) its connotations of excess, and settled down in the meaning it now has, 'careful, punctilious, precise'. If it differs at all from these synonyms, it is perhaps from a vestigial shadow of this strange past rather than any real distinction in meaning:
Utz has planned his own funeral with meticulous care—Bruce Chatwin, 1988
Very many tedious hours were spent on the dull and routine tasks of listing, plotting on graphs, meticulously checking and classifying—I. Young, 1990.
| meter, metathesis, metaphor and simile | |
| metonymy, metope, metrosexual |
Roget's Thesaurus:
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meticulous
adjective
- Showing or marked by attentiveness to all aspects or details: careful, fastidious, painstaking, punctilious, scrupulous. See careful/careless.
- Very difficult to please: choosy, dainty, exacting, fastidious, finical, finicky, fussy, nice, particular, persnickety, squeamish. Informal picky. See accept/reject.
Antonyms by Answers.com:
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meticulous
adj
Definition: detailed, perfectionist
Antonyms: careless, messy, sloppy, undetailed
Word Tutor:
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meticulous
IN BRIEF: Giving great attention to details.
The students who are meticulous about their studies often get the most out of their education.
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Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'meticulous'
Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary:
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meticulous
See crossword solutions for the clue Meticulous.
Translations:
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Meticulous
Dansk (Danish)
adj. - omhyggelig, pedantisk, sirlig, grundig
Nederlands (Dutch)
nauwkeurig, minutieus
Français (French)
adj. - méticuleux, exact, précis
Deutsch (German)
adj. - sorgfältig, (über)genau
Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - ακριβολόγος, λεπτολόγος, διεξοδικός, επιμελής, ενδελεχής, σχολαστικός
Português (Portuguese)
adj. - meticuloso
Русский (Russian)
придирчивый, тщательный
Español (Spanish)
adj. - meticuloso, minucioso
Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - noggrann, petig
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
一丝不苟的, 过细的, 精确的
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 一絲不苟的, 過細的, 精確的
日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 小心な, きちょうめんな
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - דקדקן, קפדן
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Roget's Thesaurus
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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