meticulous
adjective
Simple meaning
Very careful about small details.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
muhtikyuhluhsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
məˈtɪkjələs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details.
Showing great attention to detail; careful and precise in a way that avoids mistakes.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details.
Used this way, meticulous is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It turns up most in academic writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Formal
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Careful and exacting
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
Usage note
Comfortable in writing and prepared speech; in casual conversation a shorter everyday word usually sounds more natural.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: characterized by very precise or conscientious attention to details
Word Forms
Meticulous · Meticulously · Meticulousness
Where This Word Comes From
From Latin 'meticulosus' (fearful), which shifted over time toward the sense of anxious carefulness.
Say it better
Looking for a more precise alternative? “meticulous” can mean several things.
exhaustedravenousmeticulouscriticaldelighted
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.