fastidious
fas·ti·di·ous/fæsˈtɪdi.əs/adjective
fastidious is spelled F-A-S-T-I-D-I-O-U-S: 10 letters and 4 syllables (fas·ti·di·ous). It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,767th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, fastidious means “Excessively particular, demanding, or fussy about details, especially about tidiness and cleanliness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in fastidious?
| Letters | 10: F-A-S-T-I-D-I-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: fas·ti·di·ous |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 44,767th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is fastidious?
Fastidious appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 44,767th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce fastidious?
- /fæsˈtɪdi.əs/
- /fəsˈtɪdi.əs/
Fastidious has 4 syllables, split fas·ti·di·ous in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fastidious.ogg, En-au-fastidious.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of fastidious
- more fastidious comparative
- most fastidious superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fastidious mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Excessively particular, demanding, or fussy about details, especially about tidiness and cleanliness.
- 2
Overly concerned about tidiness and cleanliness.
- 3
Difficult to please; quick to find fault.
- 4
Having precise requirements for nutrition and environment (chemical and physical); especially, being difficult to culture because of those requirements.
fastidious organism
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fastidious in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | méticuleux , exigeant |
| German | pingelig, penibel, übergenau, etepetete , anspruchsvoll, wählerisch |
| Spanish | maniático de/con/por la limpieza , escolimoso, descontentadizo, malcontentadizo, difícil de complacer |
| Portuguese | exigente |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does fastidious come from?
Borrowed from Latin fastīdiōsus (“passive: that feels disgust, disdainful, scornful, fastidious; active: that causes disgust, disgusting, loathsome”), from fastīdium (“a loathing, aversion, disgust, niceness of taste, daintiness, etc.”), perhaps for *fastutidium, from fastus (“disdain, haughtiness, arrogance, disgust”) + taedium (“disgust”). Cf. French fastidieux.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).