SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
pedantic
adjective
Overly concerned with minor details, rules, or displaying learning.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Overly focused on minor correctness
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topPedantic criticizes disproportionate concern with small rules or displays of learning; precise work is not necessarily pedantic.
RELATED FORMS, ONE FEATURED ENTRY
The pedantic family
These forms are closely related, but their grammar and use are not identical. Expand a form to compare its meaning and examples.
pedantrynoun
Excessive concern with minor rules or details, often as a display of learning.
Excessive concern with minor rules or details, often as a display of learning
Closest synonyms
Related expressions
Useful precision became pedantry when he debated every comma.
Her correction clarified the text without descending into pedantry.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See pedantic in use
The pedantic correction distracted from the main point of the discussion.
The discussion quickly turned pedantic as each participant tried to sound more learned than all the others.
1 more example
The next seminar included a deliberately didactic exercise designed to teach the difference between a claim and its supporting evidence. One participant became pedantic, interrupting the discussion to insist on a minor formatting rule that did not affect the argument.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license