Pedantic vs Punctilious - What's the difference?
pedantic | punctilious |
Like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning.
Being showy of one’s knowledge, often in a boring manner.
Being finicky or fastidious, especially with language.
Strictly attentive to detail; meticulous or fastidious, particularly to codes or conventions.
Precise or scrupulous; finicky or nitpicky.
* 2009 , Ronnie Cann, Ruth Kempson and Eleni Gregoromichelaki, Semantics: an introduction to meaning in language
As adjectives the difference between pedantic and punctilious
is that pedantic is like a pedant, overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning while punctilious is strictly attentive to detail; meticulous or fastidious, particularly to codes or conventions.pedantic
English
Alternative forms
* pedantick (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- "On the contrary, the fall was perfectly safe; it was the impact with the ground that killed him".
Synonyms
* (like a pedant) anal-retentive, fussy, nit-picky * (knowledge-peacock) (sometimes applicable) nit-picky, ostentatious, pedagogical, pretentious * (linguistically affected) fussy, nit-picky * See alsoExternal links
* *Anagrams
*punctilious
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- With a punctilious slap of the gloves, the duel was now inevitable.
- Of course, humans do not treat time in such a punctilious fashion.