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.

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

• 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)

Further reading

• “meticulous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “meticulous”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.