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• picayune
  picayune

  adjective

  of little value or account; small; trifling.
• Picayune
  Picayune

  noun

  a town in SE Mississippi.

picayune

¹ American  

[pik-ee-yoon, pik-uh-] / ˌpɪk iˈjun, 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 əˈjun, 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

• picayunishness
  noun
• picayunishly
  adverb

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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

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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

See Examples For:

picayune Picayune

Sadly, the circumstances of our birth also sentenced us to put up with picayune, ornery, solipsistic types like him.

From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026

The contest, in a district stretching from lower Manhattan into brownstone Brooklyn, has featured plenty of bile about Trump, promises of a more affordable city and picayune local disputes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026

When Jacobs tells a Kryptos message board he’s visiting the sculpture, the solvers have absurdly picayune requests.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2022

Some of the improvements Caplan counsels can seem picayune, such as insulating on-site work trailers, reducing idling, encouraging construction workers to use transit, and swapping out containers for open-bed shipping.

From Slate ● Dec. 6, 2021

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

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Richoux, who lives in Picayune, Miss., appreciates that DTC brands have made the delicacy more readily available.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

But the bill died after Senate Constitution Committee Chairwoman Angela Hill, a Republican from Picayune, refused to bring it up.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 22, 2024

“The excitement now became very great,” the Picayune wrote.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2022

Mr. Hardin was not charged at the time, and wound up applying for a new role at a J.R.O.T.C. program two hours away from Picayune.

From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2022

Papa looked above his newspaper, The Conjure Picayune.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton

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