Meaning & use
pedantry
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Meanings
noununcountable
The quality or habit of being too concerned with small details or formal rules, in a way that annoys others.
Grammar: Uncountable; often used with a possessive: his pedantry, their pedantry.
Patterns
- pedantry about something
- accuse someone of pedantry
Her pedantry about grammar made her unpopular at parties.
The report was full of pedantry and missed the main point.
He was accused of pedantry for correcting every small mistake.
nouncountable
An instance of annoying attention to minor details or rules.
Grammar: Countable; usually plural: pedantries.
The book is full of pedantries that distract from the story.
We had to listen to his pedantries about the correct way to fold a letter.
Word forms
| plural | pedantries |
|---|
Common combinations
- pedantry about
- His pedantry about pronunciation irritated everyone.
- accuse someone of pedantry
- She was accused of pedantry when she insisted on the exact wording.
- the height of pedantry
- Correcting a typo in a casual text is the height of pedantry.
- academic pedantry
- The paper was criticized for academic pedantry.
Synonyms and how they differ
- nitpicking
- More informal and focuses on finding small faults; pedantry often suggests a show of learning or strict rule-following.
- quibbling
- Suggests arguing over small, unimportant points; pedantry is more about excessive attention to formal correctness.
- hair-splitting
- Emphasizes making overly fine distinctions; pedantry can also involve rules and details more broadly.
Opposites
Word family
- pedant noun
- A person who is pedantic.
- pedantic adjective
- Too concerned with small details or formal rules.
- pedantically adverb
- In a pedantic manner.
Commonly confused: pedantry or pedanticism?
pedantry vs pedanticism
A rare variant of pedantry; most speakers use pedantry instead.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'pedantry' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Pedantry is an uncountable noun meaning excessive concern with details; it fits as the subject with 'about'. The other options misuse it as a verb, adjective, or adverb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pedantry”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.