pedantic

English

Alternative forms

• pedantick (obsolete)

Etymology

From pedant +‎ -ic.

Pronunciation

• enPR: pa-dăn'tĭk, IPA^(key): /pəˈdæn.tɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æntɪk

Adjective

pedantic (comparative more pedantic, superlative most pedantic)

1. Being overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning, like a pedant.
2. Being showy of one’s knowledge, often in a boring manner.

Quotations

• 1884, J F Räbiger, translated by John Macpherson, Encyclopædia of Theology (Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, volume XX), volume I, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, page 79:

  In a special section Tittmann lays down a theological doctrine of method, which embraces theological discipline, that is, the arrangement of study according to a determined plan; theological architectonic, that is, the scientific treatment of theology; and theological pædantic, that is, practical theology.

• 1895, “BRETSCHNEIDER, Karl Gottlieb”, in The Home Encyclopædia: Compiled and Revised to Date from the Leading Encyclopædias, volume four, Chicago: Educational Publishing Co., page 1102:

  He gives an interesting account of his early childhood and school training, of the impression produced upon him by his father’s dignified bearing, and of the agricultural pursuits and piscatorial amusements by which the clerical and pædantic labors of the latter were diversified.

Synonyms

• pedantical
• (like a pedant): (informal, derogatory) anal-retentive, fussy, nit-picky
• (showy of one's knowledge): (sometimes applicable) nit-picky, ostentatious, pedagogical, pretentious
• See also Thesaurus:fastidious

Derived terms

Related terms

• pedant
• pedantry

Translations

See also

• inkhorn

Further reading

• “pedantic”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “pedantic”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• depactin, pentacid, pentadic

Romanian

Etymology

From pedant +‎ -ic.

Adjective

pedantic m or n (feminine singular pedantică, masculine plural pedantici, feminine and neuter plural pedantice)

1. pedantic

Declension