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.

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Other Word Forms

• unfussiness
  noun

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fussiness

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

Though many kids aren’t without their picky eating habits, the child’s fussiness stems from a rare eating disorder, leaving her underweight and requiring a feeding tube that Linda must monitor daily.

From Salon ● Oct. 9, 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

Davis’ fussiness evokes watchmakers or jewelers, but those analogies miss her humor.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2023

Xan blamed the onset of old age and the crick in her back and the fussiness of the child, but none of those things was true.

From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill