punctilious
/pʌŋkˈtɪli.əs/ adjective
- adjective Strictly attentive to detail; meticulous or fastidious, particularly to codes or conventions. “With a punctilious slap of the gloves, the duel was now inevitable.”
- adjective Precise or scrupulous; finicky or nitpicky.
Synonyms
accurate careful surgical comprehensive solicitous conscientious exhaustive fastidious groundly in-depth intensive letter-perfect mindful minute particular polished precise painstaking rigorous root and branch meticulous
Etymology
From punctilio (“fine point in exactness of conduct”) + -ous.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Attentive to punctilio; very nice or exact in the forms of behavior, etiquette, or mutual intercourse; precise; exact in the smallest particulars. "A punctilious observance of divine laws." Rogers. "Very punctilious copies of any letters. The Nation.
Etymology [Cf. It. puntiglioso, Sp. puntilloso.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “punctilious”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details