fastidious
Giving too much attention to small details or demanding high standards.
ExampleThe editor was fastidious about evidence and rejected unsupported claims.
ExampleHer fastidious standards made the laboratory unusually careful.
Usage Scenarios
Editorial precision
Use fastidious when someone checks details with unusually strict standards.
ExampleThe fastidious reviewer questioned every unsupported assertion.
Taste or cleanliness
Use it when a person is hard to please about appearance, order, or quality.
ExampleThe curator was fastidious about the placement of each object.
Usage Guide
Use fastidious when a GRE sentence emphasizes exacting standards or excessive attention to detail. It can be positive, negative, or slightly critical depending on context.
Strong chunks include fastidious editor, fastidious attention, fastidious standards, and fastidious taste. The word often evaluates precision or pickiness.
Do not use fastidious for ordinary carefulness unless the sentence suggests unusually high standards or fussiness.
Word Forms & Word Building
Fastidious uses the adjective suffix -ious, which often forms descriptive adjectives about a tendency or quality.
Fastidiously is the -ly adverb: the scholar checked the citations fastidiously.
Fastidiousness is the noun, but GRE learners usually need phrase chunks such as fastidious standards and fastidious attention.
Meaning Boundaries
Fastidious vs careful
Careful is broad and usually positive. Fastidious suggests unusually demanding attention to details or standards.
Fastidious vs careless
Careless ignores details or standards. Fastidious notices details intensely, sometimes so intensely that the care becomes demanding or fussy.
Register
Fastidious is formal and common in GRE passages about taste, scholarship, editing, cleanliness, and precision.
Memory Tricks
Think hard to satisfy about details. Fastidious is carefulness pushed to a high standard.
Pair it with editor, critic, scholar, standards, taste, and attention.
Look for clues like meticulous, exacting, picky, scrupulous, or demanding.
Common Traps
Do not use fastidious when the person merely works hard; the word focuses on standards and details.
Do not assume fastidious is always negative. It can praise accuracy in academic contexts.
If the sentence emphasizes moral honesty rather than detail standards, scrupulous may fit better.