Word a Day
fastidious
What does fastidious mean?
fastidious (adjective): excessively particular, demanding, or fussy about details, especially about tidiness and cleanliness.
Definition: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
How do you use fastidious in a sentence?
- A fastidious and incisive intellect. (Princeton WordNet 3.1)
- Fastidious about personal cleanliness. (Princeton WordNet 3.1)
How do you pronounce fastidious?
/fæˈstɪdiəs/ (IPA, American English). The app reads every word aloud.
Where does fastidious come from?
Borrowed from Latin fastīdiōsus (“passive: that feels disgust, disdainful, scornful, fastidious; active: that causes disgust, disgusting, loathsome”).
Etymology: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Test yourself: do you know “fastidious”?
Tap an answer to check it. The same questions the app asks.
What does “fastidious” mean?
practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory
Not quite: that's what pragmatic means.
examining one's own perceptions and sensory experiences; contemplative or thoughtful about oneself
Not quite: that's what introspective means.
stopping and starting, occurring, or presenting at intervals; coming after a particular time span
Not quite: that's what intermittent means.
excessively particular, demanding, or fussy about details, especially about tidiness and cleanliness
Right! That's what “fastidious” means.
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