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Pronunciation varies by accent · noun
(idiomatic, derogatory) The act of considering or arguing about exceedingly small differences, fine details, and/or edge cases of no seeming importance, worrying about minutiae..
Regardless of the ultimate judgment and any hair splitting, the CIA seemed to many Americans to have regressed to and even surpassed its criminal-like behavior during the pre-Church Committee hearings era.
2006, Ian Aitken, in The Guardian, Richard Clements Obituary Dick's Tribune poked endless fun at the hair-splitting sectarianism of the various Trotskyist groups jostling on the fringes of the Labour party at that time.
Use hair-splitting when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Hair-splitting means (idiomatic, derogatory) The act of considering or arguing about exceedingly small differences, fine details, and/or edge cases of no seeming importance, worrying about minutiae..
Common synonyms include hair-splittery, pedantry, quibbling, pilpul.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
Regardless of the ultimate judgment and any hair splitting, the CIA seemed to many Americans to have regressed to and even surpassed its criminal-like behavior during the pre-Church Committee hearings era.
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