Learned borrowing from Latin meticulōsus (“full of fear, timid, fearful, terrible, frightful”), from metus (“fear”) and -culōsus, extracted from perīculōsus (“perilous”). Sense of “characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details” is a semantic loan from French méticuleux.

• (US) IPA^(key): /mɪˈtɪkjɪlɪs/, /mɪˈtɪkjuləs/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkjələs

meticulous (comparative more meticulous, superlative most meticulous)

1. Characterized by very precise, conscientious attention to details.

   Synonyms: painstaking, fastidious; see also Thesaurus:meticulous

   Antonyms: sloppy, careless, slapdash

   meticulous search

   meticulous investigation

   meticulous knowledge

   meticulous report

   • 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Roosevelt's Fireside Chat, 28 July 1943:

     The meticulous care with which the operation in Sicily was planned has paid dividends. Our casualties in men, in ships and materiel have been low—in fact, far below our estimate.

2. (archaic) Timid, fearful, overly cautious.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cautious

   Antonyms: aggressive, carefree; see also Thesaurus:careless

• meticulosity, meticulously, meticulousness

• “meticulous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “meticulous”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.