persnickety
Americanadjective
-
overparticular; fussy.
- Synonyms:
- finicky
-
snobbish or having the aloof attitude of a snob.
-
requiring painstaking care.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of persnickety
1885–90; originally Scots, variant of pernickety
Explanation
Persnickety is a lively, fancy word for “fussy.” If you've sent your salad back to the kitchen three times, you might be a persnickety eater. The adjective persnickety sounds prickly like a porcupine, and persnickety people can indeed be sharp and prickly when they don't get things precisely as they wish. If you're persnickety about your coffee, you'll probably want to put the cream and sugar in yourself.
Vocabulary lists containing persnickety
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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.
Since its first appearance on the Coney Island boardwalk, the hot dog has been dogged by a lowbrow reputation—low nutrition, low quality, low price—maligned by public-health officials and persnickety parents alike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
“I’ve covered a lot of politicians over 40 years now,” journalist Steve Collins, who’s been covering Maine for a decade, told me, “and her office is the most persnickety that I have ever run across.”
From Slate ● Jun. 16, 2026
And I’m still persnickety but exposure to so many extreme foods has broadened my palate.
From Salon ● Jun. 15, 2026
Molina wasn’t as persnickety in her own life.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2023
The point here is to make your animal understand that its upstairs neighbour is exceptionally persnickety about territory.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
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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.
