Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Acting or arriving exactly at the time appointed; prompt.
  • adjective Paid or accomplished at or by the appointed time.
  • adjective Precise; exact.
  • adjective Confined to or having the nature of a point in space.
  • adjective Linguistics Of, related to, or being the verbal aspect that expresses momentary action or action considered as having no temporal duration.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Consisting of a point; being a point.
  • Exact; precise; nice.
  • Exact or prompt in action or in the observance of time, the keeping of appointments, engagements, etc.
  • Prompt; at the exact or stipulated time: as, punctual payment.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective rare Consisting in a point; limited to a point; unextended.
  • adjective Observant of nice points; punctilious; precise.
  • adjective Appearing or done at, or adhering exactly to, a regular or an appointed time; precise; prompt.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective prompt or on time
  • adjective mathematics Existing as a point or series of points
  • adjective linguistics Expressing momentary action that has no duration

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective acting or arriving or performed exactly at the time appointed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, sharp-pointed, from Medieval Latin pūnctuālis, from Latin pūnctum, point, from neuter past participle of pungere, to prick; see pungent.]

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