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.

The overwhelming public perception of OCD is that it is an obsession with cleaning, tidying and symmetry, a fastidiousness seen in characters like Monica Geller from Friends.

From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026

Fans and scholars have retrospectively diagnosed the character as being on the spectrum, and you can easily find essays and discussions as to whether Poirot’s fastidiousness at least borders on OCD.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 13, 2025

But if their confounding, at times uncanny fastidiousness can dazzle, it may also leave you shrugging your shoulders, aching for something less cerebral and conceptually slippery.

From Washington Post • Feb. 3, 2022

The dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham rears up “like a furry old faun”; the gallerist Leo Castelli has a Felix Unger-ish fastidiousness.

From New York Times • Nov. 21, 2021

She remembers her husband’s fastidiousness, his war against germs.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García