PRECISE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does precise mean? 

• PRECISE (adjective)
  The adjective PRECISE has 2 senses:

1. sharply exact or accurate or delimited

2. (of ideas, images, representations, expressions) characterized by perfect conformity to fact or truth; strictly correct

  Familiarity information: PRECISE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRECISE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sharply exact or accurate or delimited

Context example:

arrived at the precise moment

Similar:

dead (unerringly accurate)

fine (minutely precise especially in differences in meaning)

finespun; hairsplitting (developed in excessively fine detail)

meticulous; punctilious (marked by precise accordance with details)

microscopic (extremely precise with great attention to details)

nice; skillful (done with delicacy and skill)

on the button; on the nose (being precise with regard to a prescribed or specified criterion)

refined (precise to a fine degree)

very (precisely as stated)

Also:

accurate (conforming exactly or almost exactly to fact or to a standard or performing with total accuracy)

distinct (easy to perceive; especially clearly outlined)

exact (marked by strict and particular and complete accordance with fact)

specific ((sometimes followed by 'to') applying to or characterized by or distinguishing something particular or special or unique)

Antonym:

imprecise (not precise)

Derivation:

preciseness (clarity as a consequence of precision)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(of ideas, images, representations, expressions) characterized by perfect conformity to fact or truth; strictly correct

Synonyms:

accurate; exact; precise

Context example:

a precise measurement

Similar:

correct; right (free from error; especially conforming to fact or truth)

Derivation:

preciseness (the quality of being reproducible in amount or performance)

 Context examples 

Scientists rely on precise numerical models to answer questions like this one.

(Antarctica's Effect on Sea Level Rise in Coming Centuries, NASA)

Its precise mechanism of action is unknown.

(Hexamethylene Bisacetamide, NCI Thesaurus)

Red blood cells require a precise coregulation of alpha and beta subunit expression to maintain the proper ratio of the subunits and normal red blood cell function.

(Hemoglobin Chaperone Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

It was characteristic of the man that the direction was a precise, and the writing as firm and clear, as though it had been written in his study.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the margin was written, in Holmes’s precise hand: The second most dangerous man in London.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Further, the expression of this gene in mature thymocytes is monoallelic, which represents an unusual regulatory mode for controlling the precise expression of a single gene.

(IL2 wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Hence, mechanisms must exist for localizing and maintaining a precise concentration of growth factor receptors at the site of signal reception.

(ErbB3 Receptor Recycling Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

Instead of being in one place, their brain cells are spread all over the body, which gives the creature very precise control to each part of the body.

(Octopuses can dream, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

All of this agrees with precise measurements made to date.

(New Clues to Universe's Structure Revealed, NASA)

As the sound waves propagate, they trap the electrons, pushing them through the device in a very precise way, as if the electrons are ‘surfing’ on the sound waves.

(Quantum state of single electrons controlled by ‘surfing’ on sound waves, University of Cambridge)