noun
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a petty formal point arising from a strict interpretation of rules, etc
the case was dismissed on a technicality
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the state or quality of being technical
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technical methods and vocabulary
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of technicality
Explanation
A technicality is a trivial or very small detail. You might consider your scuffed, unpolished shoes to be an unimportant technicality when you're dressing for a job interview. You can use the noun technicality for any small point or detail, but it's most likely to come up in the context of a court trial or a conversation with an attorney. A legal technicality is a small but ultimately important detail of the law. For example, a robbery suspect might have his trial dismissed on a legal technicality if the arresting police officer neglected to show him a search warrant before searching his house.
Vocabulary lists containing technicality
It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
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Guts
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Just Mercy
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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.
See Examples For:
He’s trying to get her papers, and there was a technicality in there—she had crossed over and not said it and is getting deported.
From Slate ● Sep. 28, 2026
“The fiduciary point is the part most people miss, and it sounds like a technicality until it’s your data,” Jeff Judge, CFP at Chesapeake Financial Planners, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
To some employees, the executive’s explanation was a semantic shield, a technicality used to protect the Gates brand.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026
The classification may sound like a technicality, but it matters because hundreds of exchange-traded funds and mutual funds base their allocations on the index’s classifications.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
After pulling off one of the great suburban escapes of all time, I’m getting sidelined on a technicality.
From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle
It’s also possible that the three judges on Texas’ 15th Court of Appeals won’t say that much about the caliber of the state’s evidence, instead focusing its on procedural technicalities or constitutional questions.
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2026
But he says he wouldn’t be surprised to see that some people will accept the assumption that Betty Boop enters the public domain next year without delving into the legal technicalities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 30, 2025
Those credits cost banks less but come with technicalities that suck up consumers’ time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025
The only other serious candidate, Luhaga Mpina of ACT-Wazalendo, was disqualified on technicalities.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2025
She signed the letters Love, but it wasn’t love, and all the fine lines and technicalities did not matter.
From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
