meticulous

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“
Clark has turned her virtuoso guitar playing into an effective catalyst for making songs that are complicated and meticulous -- she's no solo-prone wanker.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Extremely careful and precise.
  2. adjective Extremely or excessively concerned with details.
  3. Syntax Note
    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).

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Did you know, Vincent, that the word "meticulous" comes from the Latin meticulosus, meaning fearful? —  The Cold Moon
  • She was meticulous, the appearance of the apartment was proof of this, but she did not feel the need, like Madame Maigret, to do everything herself. —  Maigret and the Black Sheep - Georges Simenon - 86
  • In this case, extremely detail-oriented, meticulous, and thorough. —  Star Trek - DS9 - Section 31 book 3 - Abyss
  • Andrew McCarthy's Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad is a comprehensive, meticulous, and impassioned reminder of that message. —  Claremont.org
  • Lacking the meticulous, double-blinded studies that are the scientific standard, we are left with the personal experiences of generations of forensic pathologists. —  Durangoherald.com
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Latin metīculōsus, timid, from metus, fear.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = French méticuleux, from Latin meticulosus, full of fear, from metus, fear.
 

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/məˈtɪkjuləs/
by American Heritage

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