Meticulously

How to spell meticulously

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce meticulously

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does meticulously mean?

1. adverbIn a way that shows great precision and careful attention to small details.

Meticulously in a sentence

• The accountant meticulously checked every figure in the report.

• He meticulously labelled each box before the move.

Where does meticulously come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin meticulosus, which originally meant 'fearful' or 'timid', built on the noun metus, meaning 'fear' or 'dread'. The connection between fear and care may seem odd, but the link is the anxious, fussy attentiveness of someone afraid of getting things wrong. English borrowed the adjective 'meticulous' in the 1500s, and at first it too carried the sense of being overly timid or excessively cautious. Over the following centuries the meaning softened and became wholly positive, settling on 'showing great precision and attention to detail'. The adverb 'meticulously' was formed in English by adding the familiar -ly ending, and the spelling trap lies entirely in the unstressed middle: the 'ic-u-lous-ly' run hides three faint schwa vowels that the ear cannot pin down.

How the word is built

• meticul- (from Latin meticulosus: fearful, careful, from metus: fear)
• -ous (adjective: full of)
• -ly (adverb)