pettiness
Americannoun
-
the quality or condition of being of little, lesser, or no importance, consequence, or merit; insignificance.
The economic cost of these wildfires pales into pettiness when compared to the real victims—the wildlife and the natural landscape.
The film is a comedy about the boredom, pettiness, and general strangeness of working in an office, as the protagonists spend their days plotting a way out of their dull and meaningless jobs.
-
the quality or condition of having or expressing limited ideas, interests, etc.; narrow-mindedness.
The novel is set against a background of small-town deceit and pettiness.
-
the quality or condition of being unkind, stingy, or ungenerous, especially in small or trifling things; meanspiritedness.
Their pettiness is perhaps best demonstrated by the threatened removal of an assortment of services provided to residents—things like fresh fruit, free coffee, and a monthly outing.
Etymology
Origin of pettiness
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.
This is a novel about pettiness, middle-class superficiality, disloyalty, prejudice and cruelty, with this coterie of rather vile friends acting as a microcosm for a society in decline.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 20, 2026
Perhaps Melania is just matching her husband’s destructive pettiness, in which case she’s joined an allegedly growing number of women of means who opt for quiet quitting their unhappy marriages rather than divorcing.
From Salon • Dec. 11, 2025
The movie finds its spell in the scene where Erivo dances alone, taking the pettiness being directed toward her and transforming it into strength and power.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2024
The sheer pettiness of these gripes—the fact that these men continue to filter justice through their small, round, grudge-colored glasses—is what is breathtaking here.
From Slate • May 17, 2024
She liked Jennifer, liked her lack of pettiness, her tough-but-fair stance, her honesty.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
