The idea of meticulous is associated with care for details.
The adjective meticulous is used to describe someone who usually pays attention to details . The term can also refer to that which is developed with great care or paying attention to the smallest issues .
For example: "My grandfather is a meticulous man, he always organizes his clothes according to color" , "After a thorough analysis of the budget, the senator discovered the embezzlement of funds" , "Tonight we will carry out a detailed review of the career of the famous Mexican singer .
Examples of detailed processes
Take the case of cleaning a house . A person may simply sweep up the dirt and consider himself to have completed the task. A thorough cleaning , on the other hand, also requires wiping the furniture, dusting the decorations, washing the window panes, and using a disinfectant on the floor and other surfaces.
A thorough job is always better than one done in a hurry, although sometimes it may not be entirely necessary. For example, when tidying up a work desk, it may be enough to remove the dust and clear it of objects that hinder the performance of tasks; A meticulous order would mean discarding those things that will no longer be used, putting everything in its place without cluttering the shelves, drawers and doors and thoroughly cleaning the work items.
Cleaning a house thoroughly involves carrying out various actions until everything is sparkling.
Witness to a crime
Suppose an individual witnesses a crime in a park and must narrate what happened. At first, he simply told the police that the attacker hit the victim in the head and then fled. The investigators, faced with this situation, ask for a detailed account of what happened. In this way, the witness concentrates and begins to provide details, explaining that the young man attacked was sitting on a bench when the aggressor approached and began to talk to him. When it seemed that the subject was going to leave, he grabbed a large branch from the ground and hit him hard on the skull. After this action, the criminal kicked the fainted boy and finally ran, carrying the branch. The last thing the witness saw was that the violent man got into a red car driven by another person and drove away from the scene.
Through this example we can understand the importance of detail in certain areas where every detail can make a difference . For a group of investigators dedicated to solving crimes, any piece of information can help them find the culprit, no matter how insignificant it may seem to witnesses. While in other areas, especially in dealings with friends and family, the search for precision can be considered obsessive, in others it is essential.
Synonyms and antonyms of thorough
Let's see below some of the various synonyms that we can use to replace the word meticulous in our speech to avoid incurring redundancy: meticulous , detail-oriented, petty, perfectionist, careful, punctilious, scrupulous, fussy and exact . As we can see, there is a curious contradiction in our language: the same term can be synonymous with fussy and careful at the same time.
The word fussy is defined as “someone who dwells on small things, on unimportant things,” while careful means “attentive and efficient in executing a task with accuracy.” How can we explain that the attitude of someone who pays attention to unimportant details can be considered equivalent to that of someone who pursues perfection? Without a doubt, this shows a problem that exists only in the observer, a negative feeling that goes through when he witnesses the way of proceeding of someone who is meticulous, perhaps because he cannot reach his degree of accuracy.