hairsplitting

American  

[hair-split-ing] / ˈhɛərˌsplɪt ɪŋ /

noun

1. the making of unnecessarily fine distinctions.

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adjective

1. characterized by such distinctions.

   the hairsplitting arguments of a political debate.

   Synonyms:

   captious, niggling, quibbling

hairsplitting British  

/ ˈhɛəˌsplɪtɪŋ /

noun

1. the making of petty distinctions

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adjective

1. occupied with or based on petty distinctions

Other Word Forms

• hairsplitter
  noun

Etymology

Origin of hairsplitting

First recorded in 1820–30; hair + splitting

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hairsplitting

But Oedipus is in no mood for academic hairsplitting.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2025

But then Team Gorsuch began nitpicking and hairsplitting, and now the story seems relevant.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2022

This is a strange time to be debating the merits of truth in journalism on the stage—and it is journalism that John is practicing here, regardless of his genre hairsplitting.

From The New Yorker ● Oct. 22, 2018

Yet even the new rules can seem like hairsplitting.

From New York Times ● Sep. 7, 2017

Even the study of the Talmud was abandoning simple, undistorted methods of interpretation, and espousing the hairsplitting dialectics of the northern French school.

From Jewish Literature and Other Essays by Gustav Karpeles