MEPX
Chapter 5 of 11All chapters
  1. 1How to learn a word
  2. 2Roots and affixes
  3. 3Time and presence
  4. 4Attitude and stance
  5. 5Care and precision
  6. 6Honesty and openness
  7. 7Surplus and shortage
  8. 8Change and stability
  9. 9Importance and scale
  10. 10Pairs people mix up
  11. 11Register and tone

Chapter 5 of 11

Care and precision

Meticulous, rigorous, fastidious.

The words

Meticulous means careful about detail and describes the standard of the work. Rigorous means thorough and strict in method. Fastidious means hard to please about detail, and leans towards fussy.

  • Meticulous is praise. Fussy is the same care described unkindly.
  • Rigorous suits a process or a proof; meticulous suits a person or a piece of work.

Scrupulous

Scrupulous adds a moral edge: careful to do the right thing, not just the correct thing. Unscrupulous is the far more common half of the pair.