Wiktionary

precise

See also: précise, precisé, and précisé

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle French précis, from Latin praecisus, perfect passive participle of praecīdere, from prae- (“before, in front”) +‎ caedere (“cut; strike”), cognate with English hit. Related to English incise. Doublet of précis.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /pɹɪˈsaɪs/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪs
  • Hyphenation: pre‧cise

Adjective

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precise (comparative more precise or preciser, superlative most precise or precisest)

  1. (broadly) Both exact and accurate.
    Antonyms: inexact, imprecise
    • 1921, Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind:
      A memory is "precise" when the occurrences that would verify it are narrowly circumscribed: for instance, "I met Jones" is precise as compared to "I met a man." A memory is "accurate" when it is both precise and true, i.e. in the above instance, if it was Jones I met.
    • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎[1], page 7:
      Individually, some of these definitions fall into the common definitional trap of being overly precise.
  2. (sciences, engineering, of data points, strictly) Consistent, clustered close together, agreeing with each other (this does not mean that they cluster near the true, correct, or accurate value).
    Antonyms: imprecise; inconsistent, varying
    Coordinate term: accurate
  3. Adhering too much to rules; prim or punctilious.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Verb

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precise (third-person singular simple present precises, present participle precising, simple past and past participle precised)

  1. (nonstandard, European Union documents, transitive) To make or render precise; to specify.
    • 2011, Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the Common Fisheries Policy:
      This proposal for a new basic regulation is justified because there is a need to precise the objectives of the CFP.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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Galician

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Verb

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precise

  1. inflection of precisar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Italian

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Adjective

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precise

  1. feminine plural of preciso

Participle

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precise f pl

  1. feminine plural of preciso

Verb

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precise

  1. third-person singular past historic of precidere

Anagrams

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Portuguese

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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precise

  1. inflection of precisar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): (Spain) /pɾeˈθise/ [pɾeˈθi.se]
  • IPA(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /pɾeˈsise/ [pɾeˈsi.se]
  • Rhymes: -ise
  • Syllabification: pre‧ci‧se

Verb

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precise

  1. inflection of precisar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative
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