pedant

American  

[ped-nt] / ˈpɛd nt /

noun

1. a person who makes an excessive or inappropriate display of learning.

2. a person who overemphasizes rules or minor details.

   Synonyms:

   hairsplitter

3. a person who adheres rigidly to book knowledge without regard to common sense.

4. Obsolete. a schoolmaster.

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pedant British  

/ ˈpɛdənt /

noun

1. a person who relies too much on academic learning or who is concerned chiefly with insignificant detail

2. archaic a schoolmaster or teacher

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Other Word Forms

• pedantesque adjective
• pedanthood noun

Etymology

Origin of pedant

First recorded in 1580–90; from Italian pedante “teacher, pedant”; apparently akin to pedagogue; -ant

Example Sentences

However relevant the stereotypical, silence-enforcing librarian remains in the popular imagination, Mychal Threets wants to dispel any lingering notion of the library as a dry, humorless place, lorded over by rigid pedants.

From New York Times

To please the pedants among you the original phrase "winter of our discontent" comes from the opening line of Shakespeare's Richard III.

From BBC

Once, having demanded that a headline combine several complex elements in a short word count, he found the result wanting: “As if written by pedants from Mars,” he declared.

From New York Times

As any pedant will tell you, May is not technically summer.

From Washington Post

If she doesn’t want to be copied on this pedant’s emails, she is perfectly capable of letting him know.

From New York Times