finicky

American  

[fin-i-kee] / ˈfɪn ɪ ki /

Sometimes finnicky;

adjective

finickier, finickiest

1. excessively particular or fastidious; difficult to please; fussy.

   Synonyms:

   picky, choosy, meticulous, demanding, exacting

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finicky British  

/ ˈfɪnɪkɪ /

adjective

1. excessively particular, as in tastes or standards; fussy

2. full of trivial detail; overelaborate

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Other Word Forms

• superfinicky
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of finicky

First recorded in 1815–25; finick + -y ¹

Explanation

You reject any vegetable that isn't yellow. You like basmati rice, but detest jasmine, Arborio, and brown. You dine at one restaurant, and you always order the same meal. You are a finicky eater — that is, you are quite particular about food. Fastidious, fussy, picky, persnickety: these are all synonyms for finicky, and they all suggest someone with extremely exacting tastes and habits, someone almost impossible to please. Finicky can also be used to describe something that demands a great deal of care and attention to detail — a finicky lock might require that you jiggle the key just so. Finicky generally conveys the sense that the person or thing it describes is quirky and pointlessly precise.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

finicky finickier finickiest

Held once every four years, often in finicky environments, pressurized with all that hype, they’re less a measure of consistency than they are of momentary mettle.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026

Restaurants have struggled this year with rising costs for ingredients such as beef, scarce labor and more finicky customers.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 18, 2025

It isn't "finicky" like some, can be frozen and revived without trouble, and is unusually good at hosting foreign DNA.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025

The capsules themselves can be a little finicky, so if fuss-free is your priority, you may prefer the PAX.

From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2025

This involved bombarding samples with neutrons in a small nuclear reactor and carefully counting the gamma rays that were emitted; it was extremely finicky work.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

In Thompson’s view, the Air Force is making a simple calculation: The B-52 costs far less to operate and maintain than the newer but finickier B-2.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 24, 2020

Cease your practice of copying tour pros, who have turned golf into survival of the finickiest by adhering to preshot routines that violate loitering laws in most states.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 9, 2026

For instance, some languages, like Matses in Peru, oblige their speakers, like the finickiest of lawyers, to specify exactly how they came to know about the facts they are reporting.

From New York Times ● Aug. 28, 2010

Related Words

• choosy
• fastidious
• fussy
• scrupulous
• squeamish