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pedantic

UK/pəˈdæn.tɪk/US/pəˈdæn.tɪk/
adjectiveB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,869 of 15,258neutral

Pedantic means too concerned with small formal details. Correcting a preposition when somebody is telling you their house burned down.

It is always a criticism, and it is about proportion rather than accuracy, since a pedantic person is usually right and that is precisely the problem. It attaches to points, distinctions and corrections. The noun is a pedant, and being pedantic about grammar is the classic case. There is a self-deprecating British formula in not to be pedantic, which always precedes exactly that.

Thomas Rowlandson · Public domain

Definitions of pedantic

  1. 1adjectivepedanticExcessively concerned with minor details or rules.B2+

    “It sounds pedantic, but the two words do mean different things.”

Where it comes from

  1. Italian

    pedante — a teacher, schoolmaster, pedant

  2. Middle French

    pedant

  3. English

    pedant

  4. English, today

    pedantic

From pedant + -ic. pedant comes from Middle French pedant, pedante, from Italian pedante (“a teacher, schoolmaster, pedant”), associated with unrelated pedagogo. Compare French pédant.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 6 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

pedantic in the wild

  • Additionally, many so-called nerds are described as being shy, quirky, pedantic, and unattractive.

    Nerd

  • A person engaging in this logical fallacy could also be considered pedantic.

    Trivial objections

  • During this time, he appears to have acquired the nickname 'Old Krenn', and is today often described as having been a rather pedantic teacher.

    Franz Krenn

  • In spite of all its truth, it is wicked, pedantic, mechanical, a fish barely breathing on a sandbank.

    Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor

  • In addition to the above, Argentines have also been labeled as lazy, vain, and pedantic, but also kind and carefree, in scientific polls.

    Stereotypes of Argentines

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the pedant family

pedanticpedant

pedantic — used about once every 10,786 pages · #11,869 · point at the bar for the others

  • pedantry