picayune

¹ American  

[pik-ee-yoon, pik-uh-] / ˌpɪk iˈyun, ˌpɪk ə- /

adjective

Informal.

1. of little value or account; small; trifling.

   a picayune amount.

   Synonyms:

   trivial, paltry, nugatory, measly, insignificant, inconsequential

2. petty, carping, or prejudiced.

   I didn't want to seem picayune by criticizing.

   Synonyms:

   illiberal, small-minded, petty, narrow-minded, narrow

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noun

1. (formerly, in Louisiana, Florida, etc.) a coin equal to half a Spanish real.

2. any small coin, as a five-cent piece.

3. Informal. an insignificant person or thing.

Picayune ² American  

[pik-uh-yoon, pik-ee-] / ˌpɪk əˈyun, ˌpɪk i- /

noun

1. a town in SE Mississippi.

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picayune British  

/ ˌpɪkəˈjuːn /

adjective

1. of small value or importance

2. mean; petty

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noun

1. the half real, an old Spanish-American coin

2. any coin of little value, esp a five-cent piece

Other Word Forms

• picayunishly adverb
• picayunishness noun

Etymology

Origin of picayune

First recorded in 1780–90; from Provençal picaioun “small copper coin” (compare French picaillons ), derivative of an unattested onomatopoetic base pikk- “beat,” here referring to the coining of coppers

Explanation

The adjective picayune refers to those things that are so small, trivial, and unimportant that they're not worth getting into. Why focus on the picayune details, when it's the larger ideas that are the real problem? There are several newspapers in America called the Picayune, because they see it as their job to comb through even the minor details of the story to get to the truth. Hear the word "picky" in picayune (though they're not related)? That's one way to remember it. A picky person is picayune. Airline disaster investigators spend their lives rummaging through the debris, knowing that it might be the most picayune detail that leads them to understand the cause of a crash.

Example Sentences

In the Ackman-verse, where the Pershing Square Capital founder has bet billions of dollars on and against companies including Hilton and Google parent Alphabet, the focus of his social media takedown might appear downright picayune.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026

The next-largest categories, and we think the most concerning, encompass election administration and absentee voting – often challenging mechanical, even picayune matters.

From Salon • Oct. 27, 2022

It seems clear that the NFL’s intent is to be picayune in its enforcement at the beginning of the year in the hope that players will be “scared straight.”

From Seattle Times • Sep. 24, 2021

These rules may seem picayune, but frequent fliers take them seriously.

From Washington Post • Oct. 18, 2018

To an outsider, this torrent of picayune detail about the financial markets would have been disorienting.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis