scrupulous
SKROO-pyuh-lus
/ˈskruːpjələs/
Diligent, thorough, and extremely attentive to details; strictly avoiding wrong conduct.
Combines intense meticulousness with a sharp moral conscience that worries over the smallest moral or technical error.
The story behind the word. From Latin 'scrupulus', a diminutive of 'scrupus' (a rough, sharp stone). Ancient Romans used the word figuratively to describe a tiny pebble trapped inside a sandal—a sharp little annoyance that makes every step uncomfortable until removed. Thus, a scrupulous person feels a tiny 'pebble' of worry in their conscience whenever a detail or moral rule is overlooked.
Word relationships
- meticulous: Meticulous focuses purely on extreme care with details, whereas scrupulous often adds an element of moral conscience.
- conscientious: Conscientious implies doing duty carefully, while scrupulous highlights exactness and fear of doing wrong.
- unscrupulous: Having or showing no moral principles; not honest or fair.
- careless: Not taking proper care or attention.
Commonly confused with
- suspicious: Suspicious means distrustful of others; scrupulous means cautious about one's own actions.
Word family
- scruple (noun): A feeling of doubt or hesitation with regard to the morality of an action.
- unscrupulous (adjective): Lacking moral principles.
- scrupulously (adverb): With extreme care and attention to detail.
Collocations
- scrupulous attention
- scrupulous honesty
- scrupulous care
- scrupulous cleanliness
Idioms & expressions
- to dot every i and cross every t
Example sentences
- "The lab technician was scrupulous in documenting every step of the chemical reaction." Scientific research
- "He was scrupulous about repaying even the tiny debts he had incurred during his student years." Historical biography
Memory hook
A sharp pebble (SCRUPLE) in your shoe keeping you uncomfortable until you fix every tiny detail. Pebble in the moral shoe.
When not to use
Do not use to describe someone who is careless or works in broad, approximate strokes.
Fun facts
- In ancient Roman weights, a 'scrupulum' was also the smallest unit of weight (about 1.14 grams), reinforcing the idea of measuring small details.
Related words
Explore more words
meticulous, fastidious, punctilious, rigorous, conscientious, scrutinize
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