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.
- 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.
(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 (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)