These words are all used to describe people in reference to the care they exercise in their general behaviour, in the performance of duties and in attention to detail. Careful is the most general word in the list. It can mean thorough or painstaking, and in this sense suggests the avoidance of error by virtue of the care exercised: a careful secretary who always checked her work twice. It can mean concerned or mindful: careful about his manners at the party. It can mean cautious or watchful: Be careful when you drive on mountain roads.

Conscientious and scrupulous agree in connoting a painstaking carefulness based on an ethical, logical, moral, or other standard.

• A conscientious researcher, through a highly developed regard for the truth, is careful to avoid error or omission; A scrupulous juror, out of a dedication to justice, is careful to weigh all the evidence and excludes all personal feelings.

Meticulous and punctilious denote a very strict or even an excessive attention to details or standards. Meticulous suggests an almost finicky concern, often about trivial matters, based on a fear of making an error: A meticulous dresser is careful to avoid all violations of the cannons of fashion. Punctilious implies an exaggerated regard for the fine points of the rules and forms prescribed by law or custom, as in etiquette: a punctilious social climber who was so careful about doing everybody else’s "right thing" that he never developed any standards of his own.