Pedant

Quick meaning: Pedant is a noun meaning A person who makes an excessive or tedious show of their knowledge, especially regarding rules of vocabulary and grammar.

Meaning

A person who makes an excessive or tedious show of their knowledge, especially regarding rules of vocabulary and grammar.

More Meanings

1. A person who is overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning.
2. Pedantic.
3. (archaic) A teacher or schoolmaster.
4. (rare, humorous) To be or act as a pedant.

Example Sentences

‘Most people in this country aren’t Christian, the standard package should not be Christian,’ Gerrard pedanted.

Tediously he pedanted, hedging around concerning the Perfect State, eventually coming out into the open with his own private Perfect State plan.

So, why do pedants pedant? We don’t really know, but some tangential studies infer it’s to do with a mixture of personality, status-signalling and group identification.

[…] as any occasion of going behond^([sic – meaning beyond]) the sea with sombody, or pedanting in some Gentlemans house, &c., for clergy-employment I will accept of none.

Word Forms

• pedants
• pedanting
• pedanted

Synonyms for pedant

Depending on context, synonyms include nitpicker, pettifogger, priss, smart aleck, smartass, wiseass.

Antonyms for pedant

Common opposites include maverick.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include scholastic, bookworm, hairsplitter, precisian, gerund-grinder, geekster.

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