pedantic
[ puh-dan-tik ]
/ pəˈdæn tɪk /
adjective
ostentatious in one's learning.
overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching.
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Nearby words
pedal pushers, pedal steel guitar, pedalfer, pedalo, pedant, pedantic, pedanticism, pedantocracy, pedantry, pedate, pedately
Also Archaic, pe·dan·ti·cal.
Related forms
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for pedantical
I do not think that success will come by a pedantical insistence upon correctness in form without regard to the sense.
College Teaching|Paul KlapperThere remain two appendices touching the tradition of knowledge, the one critical, the other pedantical.
The Advancement of Learning|Francis BaconIt took at least five minutes before the wearisome, pedantical fellow had finished his arrangements and preparations.
British Dictionary definitions for pedantical
pedantic
/ (pɪˈdæntɪk) /
adjective
of, relating to, or characterized by pedantry
Derived Formspedantically, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for pedantical
pedantic
formed in English c.1600, from pedant + -ic. The French equivalent is pédantesque. Perhaps first attested in John Donne's "Sunne Rising," where he bids the morning sun let his love and him linger in bed, telling it, "Sawcy pedantique wretch, goe chide Late schooleboyes." Related: Pedantical (1580s); pedantically.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper