noun
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a petty formal point arising from a strict interpretation of rules, etc
the case was dismissed on a technicality
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the state or quality of being technical
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technical methods and vocabulary
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of technicality
Explanation
A technicality is a trivial or very small detail. You might consider your scuffed, unpolished shoes to be an unimportant technicality when you're dressing for a job interview. You can use the noun technicality for any small point or detail, but it's most likely to come up in the context of a court trial or a conversation with an attorney. A legal technicality is a small but ultimately important detail of the law. For example, a robbery suspect might have his trial dismissed on a legal technicality if the arresting police officer neglected to show him a search warrant before searching his house.
Vocabulary lists containing technicality
Guts
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It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
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Just Mercy
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“The fiduciary point is the part most people miss, and it sounds like a technicality until it’s your data,” Jeff Judge, CFP at Chesapeake Financial Planners, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
The classification may sound like a technicality, but it matters because hundreds of exchange-traded funds and mutual funds base their allocations on the index’s classifications.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
The decision turned on a technicality: Police demanded the surrender of four German shepherds; the disputed dogs are, in fact, one Dutch shepherd and three Belgian Malinois.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
I grew up just outside Chicago, though “grew up” feels like a technicality.
From Salon ● Dec. 7, 2025
There was a hearing, but Katie was told beforehand that it was a technicality.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Sticklers will note that “Roughing It” is supposedly nonfiction, but when was Mark Twain ever bound by technicalities, much less facts?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
And when the technicalities of A.I. detection collide with cancel culture, it does not lead anywhere productive.
From Slate ● Apr. 17, 2026
The only other serious candidate, Luhaga Mpina of ACT-Wazalendo, was disqualified on technicalities.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2025
They hear neighbors complaining about insurance companies denying claims over technicalities or offering payouts that are less than the cost of repair or replacement.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2025
Talking to him was largely a matter of getting him away from such subjects and entangling him, if possible, in the technicalities of Newspeak, on which he was authoritative and interesting.
From "1984" by George Orwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
