punctilious
1
8.9
- adjective
- /pʌŋkˈtɪliəs/
- Formal
:
puntilloso
- Since that night on the salt flats, Wetherall had treated me with punctilious correctness, retreating into formality like a hurt child.
Examples
-
Mollie had never liked her much, but had always thought him rather nice; he was so punctilious in small courtesies.
Fiction book (1998) -
Gray could afford to be the punctilious statesman; he dealt with politicians and political problems.
Fiction book (1990) -
When it comes to matters of public duty, one must be punctilious.
-
Marie had been punctilious about such matters.
Academic text (2010) -
"His tone was equally cold and punctilious."
Fiction book (1990) -
You can imagine how punctilious we were in sending out invitations to the royal christenings.
Fiction book (1995) -
That made me wary, and wariness made me even more punctilious than usual.
Fiction book (2000) -
Arkady suspected that not so long ago Polina had been the girl in pathology class with the best reports, illustrated and footnoted in punctilious detail.
Fiction book (1992) -
Vasiliki Neofotistos, Vaso for us, was incredible as an editor; she was timely, astute, and punctilious in her interventions, and always gracious.
Academic text (2010) -
He was always punctilious about following the rules at work, ensuring everything was done correctly.
Synonyms
106
4.4
Careful about small details and hard to please
58
8.6
Being very careful about small details
49
5.9
Careful and serious about doing work the right way
8
8.0
Very careful about small details and being clean, often hard to please
3
7.2
Careful to do things correctly and notice small details
Careful about small details and hard to please
Being very careful about small details in a way that annoys others
Antonyms
How Careful
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Punctilious comes from an old Italian word punctiglio, which is based on Latin punctum 'point'. So to be punctilious is to care about every 'point' or small detail, being very careful and correct.