Pedant
noun
A person who cares too much about small, unimportant details, especially in learning.
His attention to minute details can make him come across as a pedant.
Often appears as...
- be a pedant
- come across as a pedant
Usage tips
Disapproving
noun
A person who cares too much about small, unimportant details, especially in learning.
His attention to minute details can make him come across as a pedant.
Often appears as...
- be a pedant
- come across as a pedant
Usage tips
Disapproving
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Excessive Detail
A pedant goes beyond necessary detail, often missing the bigger picture or main point.
While editing my essay, I was such a pedant that I focused on comma placement rather than the argument.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Connotation
Being called a pedant usually suggests annoyance; it's not typically a compliment.
She called me a pedant when I corrected her pronunciation again.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Just Academics
'Pedant' can refer to anyone overly concerned with details, not just in learning.
He's such a pedant about his lawn, plucking out every tiny weed.
Pro Tip 1/3Excessive Detail
A pedant goes beyond necessary detail, often missing the bigger picture or main point.
While editing my essay, I was such a pedant that I focused on comma placement rather than the argument.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Connotation
Being called a pedant usually suggests annoyance; it's not typically a compliment.
She called me a pedant when I corrected her pronunciation again.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Just Academics
'Pedant' can refer to anyone overly concerned with details, not just in learning.
He's such a pedant about his lawn, plucking out every tiny weed.
Pro Tip 1/3Excessive Detail
A pedant goes beyond necessary detail, often missing the bigger picture or main point.
While editing my essay, I was such a pedant that I focused on comma placement rather than the argument.
Pro Tip 2/3Negative Connotation
Being called a pedant usually suggests annoyance; it's not typically a compliment.
She called me a pedant when I corrected her pronunciation again.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Just Academics
'Pedant' can refer to anyone overly concerned with details, not just in learning.
He's such a pedant about his lawn, plucking out every tiny weed.
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Quote examples
Giordano Bruno
Italian Philosopher
We see that pedantry has never been held in such esteem for the government of the world as in our times, and it offers as many paths of the true intelligible species and objects of infallible and sole truth as there are individual pedants.
Quote examples
Steph McGovern
English Journalist
I, like many annoying pedants, will wince when someone says 'less' when they should have said 'fewer.' But my 'poor' sounds like poo-ah, not pore; and my 'grass' rhymes with mass, not farce. What's wrong with that?
Quote examples
Steven Pinker
Canadian Scientist
Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual.
Quote examples
Gunter Grass
German Author
Memory likes to play hide-and-seek, to crawl away. It tends to hold forth, to dress up, often needlessly. Memory contradicts itself; pedant that it is, it will have its way.
Quote examples
Colson Whitehead
American Novelist
I didn't know I was a zombie pedant until I started considering what from the zombie canon to keep in 'Zone One' and what to ignore.
Quote examples
George Weinberg
American Psychologist
My father was a pedant and a bully who cared about nobody, and I was not to see him until I was eighteen.
Quote examples
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
American Writer
Do not be bullied out of your common sense by the specialist; two to one, he is a pedant.
Quote examples
Alfred North Whitehead
English Mathematician
Fools act on imagination without knowledge, pedants act on knowledge without imagination.
Quote examples
George Orwell
British Author
Joyce is a poet and also an elephantine pedant.
Quote examples
Johann Kaspar Lavater
German Theologian
Have you ever seen a pedant with a warm heart?
Quote examples
Giordano Bruno
Italian Philosopher
We see that pedantry has never been held in such esteem for the government of the world as in our times, and it offers as many paths of the true intelligible species and objects of infallible and sole truth as there are individual pedants.
Quote examples
Steph McGovern
English Journalist
I, like many annoying pedants, will wince when someone says 'less' when they should have said 'fewer.' But my 'poor' sounds like poo-ah, not pore; and my 'grass' rhymes with mass, not farce. What's wrong with that?
Quote examples
Steven Pinker
Canadian Scientist
Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual.
Quote examples
Gunter Grass
German Author
Memory likes to play hide-and-seek, to crawl away. It tends to hold forth, to dress up, often needlessly. Memory contradicts itself; pedant that it is, it will have its way.
Quote examples
Colson Whitehead
American Novelist
I didn't know I was a zombie pedant until I started considering what from the zombie canon to keep in 'Zone One' and what to ignore.
Quote examples
George Weinberg
American Psychologist
My father was a pedant and a bully who cared about nobody, and I was not to see him until I was eighteen.
Quote examples
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
American Writer
Do not be bullied out of your common sense by the specialist; two to one, he is a pedant.
Quote examples
Alfred North Whitehead
English Mathematician
Fools act on imagination without knowledge, pedants act on knowledge without imagination.
Quote examples
George Orwell
British Author
Joyce is a poet and also an elephantine pedant.
Quote examples
Johann Kaspar Lavater
German Theologian
Have you ever seen a pedant with a warm heart?
Example 1 of 10
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