Meaning & use
picky
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Meaning
adjectivecomparableinformal
Hard to please because you insist on very particular standards, especially about what you will eat, buy or accept.
Grammar: Often followed by about: she is picky about her coffee.
Patterns
- picky about something
- a picky eater
My nephew is so picky that he only eats plain pasta and apples.
The committee was picky about the font used in the report.
Don't be too picky; the first apartment we saw was perfectly fine.
Word forms
| comparative | pickier |
|---|---|
| superlative | pickiest |
Common combinations
- a picky eater
- Our daughter was a picky eater until she started school.
- picky about
- He is picky about who touches his camera.
- far too picky
- You are far too picky to ever find a flat in this city.
- a picky customer
- The shop owner sighed at yet another picky customer.
- get picky
- Buyers get picky when the market slows down.
Synonyms and how they differ
- fussy
- Fussy is the usual British equivalent and can also suggest making a lot of noisy complaints, while picky is mostly about careful choosing.
- choosy
- Choosy is a little milder and often just means selective, whereas picky leans toward unreasonable.
- fastidious
- Fastidious is more formal and suggests a refined concern for neatness or quality, not just a long list of rejections.
- selective
- Selective is neutral or even admiring, while picky usually carries mild criticism.
Opposites
Word family
- pickiness noun
- the quality of being picky
- pick verb
- to choose or select
- pickily adverb
- in a picky manner (rare)
Commonly confused: picky or particular?
picky vs particular
Particular can be a neutral way to say someone has firm preferences, while picky implies they are being a bit too demanding.
Practice
My brother is so ___ about food that he refuses anything with a sauce.
Choose one answer.
Picky about is the natural pattern and fits the mildly critical tone. Selective would need about, not of, and the other options do not describe food preferences.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “picky”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.