penibel

meticulous, painstaking

adjective pe-NEE-bel Rare

Origin: from Latin poenibilis, via French pénible

Also means

fussy, pedantic

Usage Note

Penibel describes excessive attention to small details, often to the point of being annoying. Stronger than sorgfältig (careful) and with a negative nuance: ein penibel ordentlicher Schreibtisch is obsessively tidy. Common in everyday German.

Examples

"Sie ist so penibel, dass sie jeden Brief dreimal auf Tippfehler prüft."

Natural Translation

She is so meticulous that she checks every letter three times for typos.

Literal Translation

She is so painstaking that she every letter three-times for typing-errors checks.

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