Webster's English Dictionary

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careful

care.ful \-f*l\ \-f(*-)le-\ \-f*l-n*s\ aj archaic  1a: SOLICITOUS, ANXIOUS  
   1b: filling with care or solicitude  2: exercising or taking care  3a: 
   marked by attentive concern and solicitude  3b: marked by wary caution or 
   prudence  3c: marked by painstaking effort  mean showing close attention to 
   details of behavior or performance. CAREFUL implies attentiveness and 
   cautiousness in avoiding mistakes; METICULOUS may imply either commendable 
   extreme carefulness or hampering finical caution over minutiae; SCRUPULOUS 
   applies to painstaking attention to what is proper or fitting or ethical; 
   PUNCTILIOUS implies minute often excessive attention to fine points - 
   care.ful.ly av SYN syn CAREFUL, METICULOUS, SCRUPULOUS, PUNCTILIOUS