Meticulous

How to spell meticulous

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce meticulous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does meticulous mean?

1. adjectiveShowing great attention to detail; very careful and precise.

Meticulous in a sentence

• The accountant kept meticulous records of every transaction.

• Her meticulous planning meant the wedding ran without a single hitch.

Where does meticulous come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word goes back to the Latin meticulosus, which meant 'fearful' or 'timid', built on metus, the Latin noun for 'fear' or 'dread'. The original idea was of someone so anxious that they fretted over every little thing, and that nervous over-carefulness is the bridge to the modern meaning. When the word first appeared in English in the sixteenth century it still carried the old sense of 'timid' or 'frightened', which can surprise modern readers. The familiar meaning of 'extremely careful and precise about detail' developed much later, in the nineteenth century, helped along by the French meticuleux. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle: the single 'c' and the '-ulous' ending both sound like vague schwas, so writers often reach for a doubled letter or an '-olous' spelling that is not there.

How the word is built

• meticul- (from Latin metus: fear, via meticulosus)
• -ous (full of, adjective suffix)