meticulous, painstaking, careful, scrupulous, fastidious, punctilious. These adjectives mean showing or marked by attentiveness to all aspects or details. Meticulous and painstaking stress extreme care: "He had throughout been almost worryingly meticulous in his business formalities" (Arnold Bennett). Repairing the fine lace entailed slow and painstaking work. Careful suggests circumspection and solicitude: A careful examination of the gem showed it to be fake. Scrupulous suggests care prompted by conscience: "Cynthia was scrupulous in her efforts to give no trouble" (Winston Churchill). Fastidious implies concern, often excessive, for the requirements of taste: "Your true lover of literature is never fastidious" (Robert Southey). Punctilious specifically applies to minute details of conduct: "The more unpopular an opinion is, the more necessary is it that the holder should be somewhat punctilious in his observance of conventionalities generally" (Samuel Butler).
Etymology
From Latin meticulosus (fearful), from metus (fear). Originally the termmeant one who was fearful and eventually it acquired a positive sense.
Usage
"It was a movement that required the meticulous precision of a master surgeon." — George Pelletier; A Christmas Story in Two Parts Eggnog; Nashua Telegraph (New Hampshire); Dec 24, 2009.
