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Synonyms

fussiness

American  
[fuhs-ee-nis] / ˈfʌs i nɪs /

noun

  1. the quality of being hard to please.

  2. the quality of being obsessed with or critical about petty details.

  3. the quality of being excessively ornate or elaborate.


Other Word Forms

Explanation

Fussiness is a quality of being overly careful or extremely hard to please. Your dad's fussiness might mean that his spices are organized alphabetically — and that he gets very annoyed if you put them back in the wrong order. If you like to have things just so before starting your homework — your room tidied, and two pencils on your desk lying parallel to your laptop — that's fussiness. You might also say you're fastidious or detail-oriented. Another kind of fussiness is essentially being picky about what you eat: "My brother's fussiness means we're always stuck eating pasta or pizza for dinner." And parents often describe the cries of an unhappy baby as fussiness, too: "Her fussiness is the worst at midnight."

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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.

What we call "fussiness" with a disapproving tone, is often anxiety and sensitivity, says consultant counselling psychologist Dr Ritika Suk Birah.

From BBC • Dec. 21, 2025

That intrinsic level of care is present in “Hard Truths,” but without the fussiness that often feels present in films made by notorious perfectionists.

From Salon • Jan. 10, 2025

Researchers found that 60% of infants whose parents had to switch formulas had experienced issues such as fussiness, gas, spit-up, constipation and diarrhea.

From Science Daily • Mar. 7, 2024

He spent hours talking and sharing stories, and they tolerated his fussiness, looking for just the right angle, just the right light.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 28, 2024

And for once Claudia’s fussiness was not the reason.

From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg

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