Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

pedantic

[puh-dan-tik]
See more synonyms for pedantic on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. ostentatious in one's learning.
  2. overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching.
Show More
Also Archaic, pe·dan·ti·cal.

Origin of pedantic

First recorded in 1590–1600; pedant + -ic
Related formspe·dan·ti·cal·ly, adverbpe·dan·ti·cal·ness, nounsem·i·pe·dan·tic, adjectivesem·i·pe·dan·ti·cal, adjectivesem·i·pe·dan·ti·cal·ly, adverbun·pe·dan·tic, adjectiveun·pe·dan·ti·cal, adjective

Synonyms for pedantic

See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.com
2. didactic, doctrinaire.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for pedantical

abstruse, academic, arid, bookish, didactic, doctrinaire, dry, dull, egotistic, erudite, formal, fussy, hairsplitting, inkhorn, learned, literary, ostentatious, particular, pedagogic, pompous

Examples from the Web for pedantical

Historical Examples of pedantical

  • It took at least five minutes before the wearisome, pedantical fellow had finished his arrangements and preparations.

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844

    Various

  • I do not think that success will come by a pedantical insistence upon correctness in form without regard to the sense.

    College Teaching

    Paul Klapper

  • There remain two appendices touching the tradition of knowledge, the one critical, the other pedantical.

British Dictionary definitions for pedantical

pedantic

adjective
  1. of, relating to, or characterized by pedantry
Show More
Derived Formspedantically, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pedantical

pedantic

adj.

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.

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper