Precise means exact, right down to the smallest detail. The precise time a train leaves, the precise wording of a contract, the precise spot where the pipe burst.
It describes people as well: someone precise is careful and exact in how they speak and work, with neat handwriting and no rounding up. Precision is the noun and precisely the adverb, and precisely on its own means 'exactly so' when you agree with somebody. Keep it apart from accurate: accurate means close to the truth, precise means finely specified, so a scale that always reads two kilos over is precise and not accurate. To be precise is a set phrase for correcting a rough figure — three hours, or two hours fifty, to be precise. And at that precise moment points at one exact instant and nothing near it.
1adjectivepreciseExact and detailed, with nothing vague left in it.
“Give me the precise wording, not a summary.”
2adjectivemeticulousCareful and exact in the way you work or speak.
“She was precise about everything, down to the labels on the jars.”
synonyms: meticulous, exacting
3adjectivenounUsed before a noun to point at one exact thing and no other.
“At that precise moment the phone rang.”
Latin praecīsus was the past participle of praecīdere, prae- plus caedere — the same cutting verb that sits inside incise. Middle French wore it down to précis, and English helped itself twice: precise, and the précis, a summary trimmed to the bone. Something precise has had everything loose cut away from it.
Proto-Indo-European
*preh₂-
Latin
praecīsus
Middle French
précis
English, today
precise
From Middle French précis, from Latin praecīsus, perfect passive participle of praecīdere, from prae- + caedere, cognate with hit. Related to incise. a doublet of précis.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA