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exacting

UK/ɪɡˈzæktɪŋ/US/ɪɡˈzæktɪŋ/
adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,878 of 15,258neutral

Exacting means demanding great care and effort. An exacting standard, an exacting task, exacting in his requirements.

It describes the demand rather than the person making it, though of a person it means hard to satisfy without being unfair. Exacting standards is the phrase every craft advertisement reaches for.

Definitions of exacting

  1. 1adjectiveexactingDemanding great care and effort.C1

    “Working for such an exacting chef meant every plate had to be perfect.”

exacting is a quality.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *h₂eǵ-

  2. Middle English

    exact

  3. Latin

    exāctus

  4. English

    exact

  5. English, today

    exacting

Built from

  • exigō · Latin — demand, claim as due; measure by a standard, weigh, test
  • ex · Latin — out
  • agō · Latin — drive

From exact + -ing. exact comes from Latin exāctus (the verb via Middle English exact), perfect passive participle of exigō (“demand, claim as due; measure by a standard, weigh, test”), from ex (“out”) + agō (“drive”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

exacting in the wild

  • The lesser standards are rational basis review and exacting or intermediate scrutiny.

    Strict scrutiny

  • The plural Praxidicae refers to the following groups of mythological figures who presided over exacting of justice: Arete and Homonoia, daughters of Praxidice and Soter, sisters to Ktesios.

    Praxidice

  • The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their sub-enfeoffed knights.

    Castle-guard

  • As is common in major sports, regulations became more exacting over time, with improvements affecting the qualities of the tennis racket and the tennis ball.

    Tennis technology

  • The expedition was successful in exacting redress by destroying the fortified town of Little Bereby and by killing the chief responsible for the attacks on American shipping.

    Ivory Coast expedition

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the exigō family

exactly

exacting — used about once every 7,462 pages · #10,878 · point at the bar for the others