pedantic

adj.

Characterized by a narrow, often ostentatious concern for book learning and formal rules: a pedantic attention to details.

pedantically pe·dan'ti·cal·ly adv.

SYNONYMS  pedantic, academic, bookish, donnish, scholastic. These adjectives mean marked by a narrow, often tiresome focus on or display of learning and especially its trivial aspects: a pedantic writing style; an academic insistence on precision; a bookish vocabulary; donnish refinement of speech; scholastic and excessively subtle reasoning.

adjective

Characterized by a narrow concern for book learning and formal rules, without knowledge or experience of practical matters: academic, bookish, donnish, formalistic, inkhorn, literary, pedantical, scholastic. See attitude/good attitude/bad attitude/neutral attitude, flexible/rigid, teach/learn.

adj

Definition: bookish, precise
Antonyms: imprecise, informal

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IN BRIEF: Bookish; showing off learning.

Nothing is as peevish and pedantic as men's judgments of one another. — Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536)

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The adjective has one meaning:

Meaning #1: marked by a narrow focus on or display of learning especially its trivial aspects
  Synonyms: academic, donnish

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