Precision

How to spell precision

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce precision

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does precision mean?

1. nounThe quality of being exact, accurate, and carefully defined.

Precision in a sentence

• The surgeon worked with remarkable precision throughout the operation.

• The engineering tolerances demand a level of precision that few workshops can match.

Where does precision come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Precision comes from the Latin praecisio, a noun built on praecidere, meaning 'to cut off in front' or 'to cut short', formed from prae 'before' and caedere 'to cut'. The original idea of cutting cleanly gave rise to the sense of something sharply defined and trimmed of excess, and from there to the modern meaning of exactness. English took the word from French precision in the 1600s, when it was used for exactness of definition and language. The same caedere root that means 'to cut' also sits inside relatives like 'concise', 'incision', and 'decide', all of which carry a sense of cutting away. That shared cis spelling is worth remembering, since the trap in precision is keeping the single 's' sound spelled as -cis- rather than reaching for a 'z' or a double letter.

How the word is built

• prae- (before/in front)
• cis (from caedere: to cut)
• -ion (noun suffix)