hairsplitting

American  

[hair-split-ing] / ˈhɛərˌsplɪt ɪŋ /

noun

1. the making of unnecessarily fine distinctions.

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adjective

1. characterized by such distinctions.

   the hairsplitting arguments of a political debate.

   Synonyms:

   captious, niggling, quibbling

hairsplitting British  

/ ˈhɛəˌsplɪtɪŋ /

noun

1. the making of petty distinctions

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adjective

1. occupied with or based on petty distinctions

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hairsplitter
  noun

Etymology

Origin of hairsplitting

First recorded in 1820–30; hair + splitting

Example Sentences

But Oedipus is in no mood for academic hairsplitting.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 13, 2025

These arguably hairsplitting thoughts nagged at me thanks to my job as a congressional correspondent focused on federal spending.

From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2024

Now comes another occasion for jurisprudential hairsplitting about contacts between the government and religious schools.

From Washington Post • Mar. 16, 2021

They generally involve rephrasing the accusation, then issuing a very narrowly-crafted and hairsplitting denial, while avoiding the central claim.

From Salon • Nov. 21, 2019

Even the study of the Talmud was abandoning simple, undistorted methods of interpretation, and espousing the hairsplitting dialectics of the northern French school.

From Jewish Literature and Other Essays by Karpeles, Gustav