Standard Lemma guide

meticulous

adj · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: /mɪˈtɪkjɪlɪs/
  • US: /mɪˈtɪkjuləs/
  • UK: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɪkjələs
  • CMU ARPABET: M AH0 T IH1 K Y AH0 L AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • meticulous search
  • meticulous investigation
  • meticulous knowledge
  • meticulous report

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: painstaking, fastidious

Antonyms: sloppy, careless, slapdash

2

adj

Meaning 2

Timid, fearful, overly cautious.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: alert, attentive, careful, cautelous, cautious, canny, chary, circumspect, conservative, deliberate, discreet, guarded, heedful, heedy, hesitant, meticulous, mindful, prudent, reckful, safe, sensible, shy, slow, tentative, timid, timorous, well-advised, wary

Antonyms: aggressive, carefree, careless, cursory, derelict, heedless, irregardless, irrespective, lash, lax, neglectful, negligent, reckless, regardless, remiss, slack, slapdash, sloppy, slovenly, slipshod, unfaithful

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

marked by extreme care in treatment of details

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a meticulous craftsman
  • almost worryingly meticulous in his business formalities

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adjective satellite

Meaning 4

marked by precise accordance with details

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • meticulous research
  • punctilious in his attention to rules of etiquette

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: punctilious

Antonyms: none provided

History

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.

Across languages

Translations

59 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: щателен (štatelen) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Bulgarian: педантичен (pedantičen) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Catalan: meticulós — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Catalan: minuciós — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Chinese Mandarin: 過細 /过细 (guòxì) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Chinese Mandarin: 細緻 /细致 (xìzhì) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Czech: pečlivý — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Czech: puntíčkářský — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Czech: akurátní — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Danish: minutiøs — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Dutch: angstvallig — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Dutch: scrupuleus — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Dutch: meticuleus — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Dutch: acribisch — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Finnish: huolellinen — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • French: méticuleux — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • French: soigneux — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Galician: meticuloso — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Galician: minucioso — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • German: akribisch — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • German: peinlich genau — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • German: pedantisch — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • German: minutiös — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • German: minuziös — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Greek: επιμελής (epimelís) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Hungarian: aprólékos — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Indonesian: teliti — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Italian: meticoloso — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Japanese: 細部まで行き届いた (saibu made ikitodoita) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Japanese: 几帳面な (kichōmen na) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Luxembourgish: akribesch — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Macedonian: акрибичен (akribičen) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Māori: mārehe — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Māori: uhupoho — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Māori: whakautiuti — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Norwegian: omhyggelig — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Polish: drobiazgowy — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Polish: skrupulatny — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Portuguese: meticuloso — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Romanian: meticulos — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Russian: скрупулёзный (skrupuljóznyj) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Russian: дото́шный (dotóšnyj) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Russian: педанти́чный (pedantíčnyj) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Russian: тщательный (tščatelʹnyj) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Russian: въедливый (vʺjedlivyj) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Russian: доскональный (doskonalʹnyj) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Scottish Gaelic: pongail — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Spanish: meticuloso — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Spanish: minucioso — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Swedish: minutiös — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Swedish: omsorgsfull — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Tagalog: malambis — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Turkish: titiz — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Ukrainian: сумлі́нний (sumlínnyj) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Ukrainian: рете́льний (retélʹnyj) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Ukrainian: педанти́чний (pedantýčnyj) — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • Vietnamese: tỉ mỉ — characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details
  • German: furchtsam — timid, fearful, overly cautious
  • German: übervorsichtig — timid, fearful, overly cautious