Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Punctual |
PunctualAdjective1. Acting or arriving or performed exactly at the time appointed; "she expected guests to be punctual at meals"; "he is not a particularly punctual person"; "punctual payment". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "punctual" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Punctual \Punc"tu*al\, adjective. [French expression ponctuel (Compare to Spanish puntual, Italian puntuale), from the Latin expression punctum point. See Point.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Punctual No bigger than a point, exact to a point or moment. (Latin, ad punctum.) Hence the angel, describing this earth to Adam, calls it "This spacious earth, this punctual spot"- i.e. a spot no bigger than a point. (Milton: Paradise Lost, viii. 23.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Antonym: unpunctual (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Observance | Adjective: observant, faithful, true, loyal; honorable; true as the dial to the sun, true as the needle to the pole; punctual, punctilious; literal; (exact); as good as one's word. |
Probity | Conscientious, tender-conscienced, right-minded; high-principled, high-minded; scrupulous, religious, strict; nice, punctilious, correct, punctual; respectable, reputable; gentlemanlike. |
Punctuality | Adjective: timely, seasonable, in time, punctual, prompt. |
Regularity of recurrence Periodicity | Egular, steady, punctual, regular as clockwork. |
Truth | Exact, accurate, definite, precise, well-defined, just, just so, so; strict, severe; close; (similar); literal; rigid, rigorous; scrupulous; (conscientious); religiously exact, punctual, mathematical, scientific; faithful, constant, unerring; curious, particular, nice, delicate, fine; clean-cut, clear-cut. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Punctual |
| English words defined with "punctual": Impunctual ♦ promptly, pronto ♦ readily ♦ unpunctual ♦ without delay. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "punctual": Deputy. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Punctual" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Romanian (precise, prompt, punctual, punctually). |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | This is a real live fellow who is not punctual. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Travel | Uae | US business visitors, however, are expected to be punctual for all appointments. (references) |
South Africa | South Africans are very punctual, and South African businesspersons make every effort to be on time for appointments. (references) | |
Ireland | Business appointments are also required and visitors are expected to be punctual. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | DEPUTY, n. A male relative of an office-holder, or of his bondsman. The deputy is commonly a beautiful young man, with a red necktie and an intricate system of cobwebs extending from his nose to his desk. When accidentally struck by the janitor's broom, he gives off a cloud of dust. "Chief Deputy," the Master cried, "To-day the books are to be tried By experts and accountants who Have been commissioned to go through Our office here, to see if we Have stolen injudiciously. Please have the proper entries made, The proper balances displayed, Conforming to the whole amount Of cash on hand -- which they will count. I've long admired your punctual way -- Here at the break and close of day, Confronting in your chair the crowd Of business men, whose voices loud And gestures violent you quell By some mysterious, calm spell -- Some magic lurking in your look That brings the noisiest to book And spreads a holy and profound Tranquillity o'er all around. So orderly all's done that they Who came to draw remain to pay. But now the time demands, at last, That you employ your genius vast In energies more active. Rise And shake the lightnings from your eyes; Inspire your underlings, and fling Your spirit into everything!" The Master's hand here dealt a whack Upon the Deputy's bent back, When straightway to the floor there fell A shrunken globe, a rattling shell A blackened, withered, eyeless head! The man had been a twelvemonth dead. Jamrach Holobom |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Punctual" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 95.77% of the time. "Punctual" is used about 71 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 95.77% | 68 | 40,606 |
| Noun (proper) | 4.23% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 71 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "punctual": be punctual. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "punctual": non-punctual. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
punctual | 7 |
being punctual | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "punctual"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | akkuraat (accurate, exact, on time, precise, prompt). (various references) | |
Albanian | pikësor, i përpiktë në orar. (various references) | |
Arabic | نقطي, واضح (apparent, bold, broad, clear, conspicuous, decided, definite, elucidative, evident, explicit, express, frank, intelligible, legible, limpid, lucid, luminous, manifest, marked, obvious, outspoken, palpable, patent, pellucid, perspicuous, plain, plump, pointed, pronounced, purposely, seeming, sharp, specific, transparent, trenchant, visible), حريص على الشكليات (punctilious), دقيق في مراعاة المواعيد, دقيق (accurate, careful, close, delicate, elaborate, exact, express, farina, fine, flour, inappreciable, infinitesimal, intangible, just, keen, mathematical, meal, nearness, nice, painstaking, particular, pernickety, precise, punctilious, rigorous, scrupulous, searching, sharp, sound, specific, straightforward, strict, ticklish, tiny, touchy, tricky, true, veracious). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | точен (accurate, careful, correct, exact, express, faithful, just, literal, minute, narrow, near, perfect, pinpoint, precise, precision, proper, refined, right, rigorous, scientific, sensitive, straight, strict, true, unerring, veracious, well-directed), педантичен (academic, academical, bookish, donnish, finical, literal, mandarin, niminy-piminy, pedantic, pettifogging, precise, priggish, punctilious, scholastic, starchy, stuffy). (various references) | |
Chinese | 準時 (on schedule, on time), 准时, 守時 . (various references) | |
Czech | přesný (accurate, clean-cut, clear-cut, correct, definite, exact, faithful, just, literal, nice, precise, right, specific, strict, subtle, true, truthful), dochvilný, detailní (comprehensive, detailed, thorough). (various references) | |
Dutch | nauwkeurig (accurate, exact, on time, prompt), nauwgezet (accurate, exactly, on time, prompt, sharp), accuraat (accurate, exact, exactly, on time, prompt, sharp). (various references) | |
Esperanto | akurata (accurate, on time, prompt). (various references) | |
Farsi | معین (Accessory, Adjutant, Ally, Ancillary, Auxiliary, Definite, Given, Positive, Precise, Regular, Specific, Standard, Subsidiary), معنی دار (Meaningful), مشروح (Elaborative, Unabridged), نیشدار (Poignant, Sarcastic), نکته دار, وقت شناس , صریح (Abstract, Clear, Definite, Explicit, Express, Frank, Open, Perspicuous, Precise, Straight, Unequivocal), خوش قول , اداب دان , ثابت دریک نقطه , دقیق (Accurate, Astringent, Astute, Exquisite, Literal, Particular, Precise, Precision, Punctilious, Scholastic, Scrutinizer, Set, Sound, Stringent, Subtle, Tender, Tenuous, Watchful, Wistful), بموقع (Apropos, Opportune, Pat, Proper, Timely), باذکرجزءیات دقیق . (various references) | |
Finnish | täsmällinen (accurate, exact, on time, precise, prompt, strict). (various references) | |
French | ponctuel. (various references) | |
Frisian | krekt (accurate, on time, precise, prompt). (various references) | |
German | pünktlich (accurate, exact, meticulous, on time, on-time, precise, prompt, punctuality, punctually, sharp). (various references) | |
Greek | συνεπής (consistent, dependable, reliable), ακριβήσ (accurate, correct, exact, just, precise, strict, thoro, thorough, true), τυπικόσ ωσ προσ την ώραν. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מ"יק (prompt), "יקן (accurate, pedant). (various references) | |
Hungarian | pontos (accurate, be precise, close, correct, distinct, exact, expidite, faithful, near, nice, on time, particular, pinpoint, precise, prompt, strait, strict). (various references) | |
Icelandic | nákvæmur (accurate, on time, prompt). (various references) | |
Indonesian | tepat pada waktunya. (various references) | |
Italian | puntuale (careful, on time, precise, prompt, regular), preciso (accurate, careful, clean, close, definite, exact, identic, identical, on time, particular, positive, precise, prompt, pronounced, rigorous, strict, thorough, trenchant, true), esatto (accurate, attunes, careful, close, correct, definite, exact, exactly, express, narrow, near, nice, on time, Plumb, prompt, right, strict, true, tunes). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | パンの木 (breadfruit, bursting, Pan-Americanism, pancake, panchromatic, pansy, punctuation, puncture, punk, punk rock), 帳面 (methodical, steady). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | パンクチュアル , きちょうめ" (methodical, steady). (various references) | |
Korean | 어김없n. (various references) | |
Manx | traaoil (apposite, apropos, apt, felicitous, fitting, fortunate, opportune, seasonable, timely, topical), dy traa (betimes, early). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | unctualpay.(various references) | |
Polish | punktualny (accurate, on time, prompt), akuratny (accurate, on time, prompt). (various references) | |
Portuguese | pontual (accurate, exact, prompt, sharp). (various references) | |
Romanian | punctual (precise, prompt, punctually), exact (accurate, accurately, by the square, careful, clean-cut, clipping, clockwork, correct, dead, directly, due, even, exact, exactly, faithful, fitting, flat, for all the world, formal, just, just so, narrow, perfect, precise, precisely, proper, punctually, regular, right, rigorous, scholarly, sharp, slick, straight, strict, strictly, that's the idea, to a day, to a hair's breadth, true, truly, you've hit it). (various references) | |
Russian | точный (accurate, clockwork, correct, deadeye, definite, direct, exact, neat, nice, perfect, pinpoint, precise, rigorous, strict), пунктуальный (precise). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | tačkin, tačan (accurate, clean-cut, correct, exact, just, pinpoint, precise, veracious). (various references) | |
Spanish | puntual (on time, prompt, religious). (various references) | |
Swedish | punktlig (on time, prompt), precis (accurate, bang, dead, even, exact, exactly, just, on time, Plumb, precise, precisely, quite, that's the idea, that's true, to a turn, veracious, very). (various references) | |
Turkish | tam (absolute, accomplished, according to cocker, accurate, all out, at the time, bang, bang on, blank, clear, complete, consummate, correct, dead, desperately, downright, due, engrained, entire, even, exact, exactly, factual, full, full complement, fully, holo-, implicit, ingrained, intact, integral, intimate, just, literal, mathematical, on time, out and out, outright, overall, perfect, plenary, Plumb, plunk, precise, precisely, prize, prompt, proper, rank, right, rightdown, root and branch, round, sharp, sheer, simple, slap bang, slick, solid, spot-on, Square, stark, straight, strict, the very, thorough, thoroughgoing, to a t, true, trueborn, unalloyed, unambiguous, unmitigated, unredeemed, unreserved, utter, very, whole), kesín (accurate, on time, prompt), kat'î (accurate, on time, prompt), doğru (above board, according to cocker, according to hoyle, accurate, aright, authentic, cheese, correct, direct, due, exact, exactly, fair, fair enough, faithful, for, guileless, honest, honest injun, just, on time, ortho-, orthodox, precisely, prompt, proper, quite so, right, righteous, sincere, spot-on, Square, straight, straight as a die, straight line, the right, the thing, the truth, thro, through, thru, true, truthful, up to, upstanding), dakik (exact, minute, nice, precise, prompt, refined, rigorous). (various references) | |
Turkmen | rejeli (accurate, neat). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | точний (accurate, austere, business-like, careful, clean-cut, clockwork, definite, definitive, exact, explicit, mathematical, nice, perfect, pointed, positive, precise, rigorous, specific, strict, trustworthy, truthful, unerring), пунктуальний (exact, nice, precise, solicitous). (various references) | |
Welsh | prydlon (timely). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | punctus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "punctual": punctualities, punctuality, punctually. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "punctual": unpunctual. (additional references) | |
Words containing "punctual": unpunctualities, unpunctuality. (additional references) | |
| |
"Punctual" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Pinctada, ponctual, puctual, puncto, punctuaql, punctural, puntual. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "punctual" (pronounced 'Punc"tu*al'): Abactinal, Abbatial, Abbatical, Abdal, Aberrational, Abettal, Abhal, Abhominal, Abiological, Abnormal, Aboral, Abortional, Abranchial, Absinthial, Abstractional, Abuttal, Abysmal, Abyssal, Academial, Accentual, Accessional, Accessorial, Accipitral, Accrementitial, Accrual, Accusal, Accusatival, Accusatorial, Acephal, Acerval, Acetal, Achenial, Acnodal, Aconital, Acoustical, Acquittal, Acranial, Acritical, Acromial, Acropetal, Acroterial, Actinal, Actinozoal, Actuarial, Adagial, Adambulacral, Adaptorial, Adenological, Adjectional, Adjectival. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-l-n-p-t-u-u" | |
-2 letters: cupula. | |
-3 letters: caput, clapt, culpa, cutup, plant, ulpan, unapt, uncap, uncut. | |
-4 letters: aunt, cant, caul, clan, clap, cult, luau, luna, lunt, pact, pant, plan, plat, pula, puna, punt, talc, tuna, ulan, ulna, unau. | |
-5 letters: act, alp, alt, ant, apt, can, cap, cat, cup, cut, lac, lap, lat, nap, nut, pac, pal, pan, pat, pul. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-l-n-p-t-u-u" | |
+2 letters: punctually, unpunctual. | |
+3 letters: pedunculate, punctuality. | |
+4 letters: pedunculated, uncapturable, unduplicated, unscriptural. | |
+5 letters: punctualities, quintuplicate, unpunctuality, unspectacular. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Slideshow | 5. Quotations: Fiction 6. Quotations: Non-fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
