Precise

How to spell precise

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce precise

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does precise mean?

1. adjectiveExact, accurate, and clearly defined, with no room for error or vagueness.

Precise in a sentence

• The surgeon needed a precise measurement before making the first cut.

• The recipe calls for a precise amount of salt, not a rough guess.

Where does precise come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word precise comes from the Latin praecisus, the past participle of praecidere, which literally meant 'to cut off short' or 'to cut in front'. That verb was built from prae, meaning 'before' or 'in front', and caedere, meaning 'to cut', the same root that sits inside words like 'scissors', 'incision', and 'concise'. The idea of cutting something off cleanly developed into the sense of trimming away the vague and the excess, leaving only what is exact and sharply defined. English borrowed it through Old French 'precis' in the late 1500s, keeping the meaning of 'exact' and 'definite'. The hidden trap in spelling is the soft 'c' that sounds like an 's', a leftover from the caedere root, so the word ends in -cise rather than -size.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• cise (from caedere: to cut) = cut off short, exact