Meaning & use
pedantic
Overly concerned with minor details, rules, or academic precision in a way that seems tiresome or show-offy.
See it in a sentence
His pedantic insistence on correcting everyone's grammar made the meeting drag on forever.
The professor's pedantic footnotes buried her genuinely interesting argument under trivial citations.
A note on using this word
Pedantic is almost always negative, implying the person cares more about technical correctness than the actual point being made.
Words with a similar meaning
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