Basic Details
Word: Fastidious
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Very careful about small details and hard to please; fussy about cleanliness, neatness or how things are done.
Synonyms: fussy, particular, finicky, meticulous
Antonyms: careless, sloppy, easy-going
How to Spell Fastidious
Syllables: fas - tid - i - ous
Tricky part: The middle is tid, and the ending is ious. Students write fastideous or drop the i and write fastidous.
Watch out for: fastideous, fastidous, fasteedious
Memory tip: A fastidious person likes things tidy, and tid sits right in the middle: fas-TID-ious.
Usage Examples
Example 1: My aunt is fastidious about her kitchen and wipes every shelf twice a day.
Example 2: The fastidious tailor measured the sleeve three times before cutting.
Example 3: Our fastidious cat will not eat from a bowl that is not spotless.
Fun Fact
Fastidious comes from Latin fastidium, disgust or loathing; it first described someone easily disgusted, and only later came to mean fussy about details.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. gregarius 2. pessimistik 3. fastidious 4. melancholly
a) expecting the worst to happen
b) a deep, lasting sadness
c) very fussy about details and hard to please
d) fond of company; sociable
Show answer
c) very fussy about details and hard to please. Gregarious ends ious like fastidious, pessimistic ends with a c and melancholy has a single l; fastidious is the right one.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word fastidious as used in the sentence:
The fastidious editor checked every comma in the magazine twice.
a) meticulous
b) careless
c) fussy
d) particular
Show answer
b) careless. A careless editor would let mistakes slip; a fastidious one checks twice.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
The soutfidais guest sent back his tea three times because it was not hot enough.
a) fatuous
b) studious
c) fastidious
d) fractious
Show answer
c) fastidious. Studious and fatuous are too short and fractious needs an r and a c, so all ten letters give fastidious.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A fastidious eater is likely to ____.
a) eat very fast
b) pick every onion out of the curry
c) eat anything at all
d) never notice the taste
Show answer
b) pick every onion out of the curry
2. Someone who is finicky about food could also be called ____.
a) generous
b) fastidious
c) brave
d) clumsy
Show answer
b) fastidious
