What is another word for pedant?

Pronunciation: [pˈɛdənt] (IPA)

Pedant is used to describe a person who is overly concerned with minor details or rules and is often perceived as annoying or obnoxious. Some synonyms for this word include nitpicker, stickler, perfectionist, fusspot, formalist, and purist. Each of these words carries its own connotation, with nitpicker emphasizing the tendency to focus on small issues, stickler often used to describe a rigid adherence to rules, perfectionist emphasizing the quest for flawlessness, fusspot suggesting excessive worry over trivial matters, formalist emphasizing strict adherence to a particular set of customs, and purist emphasizing a desire for purity or authenticity. Depending on the context, any of these words could be used in place of pedant.

Usage examples for Pedant

He was also a pedant who concealed from himself his own baseness by a scrupulous devotion to ancient forms even in religion.
"Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius"
Samuel Dill
I must finish, for I cannot think of his intolerable insolence with common patience; and I know not what right I have to tease you, concerning my paltry disputes with a plebeian pedant, and my still more paltry jealousies.
"Anna St. Ives"
Thomas Holcroft
One is deemed a pedant-a terrible charge at Paris!
"The Idler in France"
Marguerite Gardiner

Famous quotes with Pedant

  • Do not be bullied out of your common sense by the specialist; two to one, he is a pedant.
    Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • Have you ever seen a pedant with a warm heart?
    Johann Kaspar Lavater
  • Joyce is a poet and also an elephantine pedant.
    George Orwell
  • My father was a pedant and a bully who cared about nobody, and I was not to see him until I was eighteen.
    George Weinberg
  • Have you ever seen a pedant with a warm heart?
    Johann Kaspar Lavater

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