How to Use pedantic in a Sentence

pedantic

adjective
  • The voice — at once pedantic and forceful, and strangely aged and pampered — was the most fun of all.
    — Jamie Fisher, New York Times, 22 June 2018
  • In the face of such daunting totals, the details of whether one tree is seen as a refugee or not may seem pedantic.
    — Olivia Gieger, Forbes, 24 Sep. 2021
  • This may seem to be pedantic, but there is a history that colors all of this.
    — Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2018
  • That’s for the best, and not just because the past three years of public life have inspired enough pedantic art for three lifetimes.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 30 Aug. 2019
  • This used to be a pedantic detail for academics, but that changed in the past decade as interest rates plunged to all-time lows.
    — Jon Sindreu, WSJ, 26 Feb. 2021
  • Paul is both strict and pedantic, with a haughty and sarcastic manner.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 31 Oct. 2023
  • So much of the rhetoric of vaccine advocates has been pedantic and angry.
    — Isaac Schorr, National Review, 28 Apr. 2021
  • Well, without seeming like a pedantic killjoy, there are those legal niceties of the system.
    — Vanityfair.com, VanityFair.com, 23 May 2017
  • Well, without seeming like a pedantic killjoy, there are those legal niceties of the system.
    — The Hive, 22 May 2017
  • The 63-page booklet was classic Sinclair: heartfelt, pedantic and too ahead of its time for its own good.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2024
  • Rita has a somewhat more codified and pedantic view of the divine — a view that blinds her to the simple beauties of the world.
    — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 26 June 2024
  • Wearing a red zip-up sweat shirt, jeans and black loafers, Petro is often accused of being aloof and pedantic.
    — Jim Wyss, miamiherald, 1 May 2018
  • His style, shaped by a mission to educate, can seem pedantic.
    — The Economist, 31 Oct. 2019
  • Thomas was both more romantic and more pedantic than his son had imagined.
    — Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024
  • Or should it be based on a nimbler, less pedantic standard designed by people who can’t agree on what’s best?
    — Nate Hopper, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2022
  • The troglodytes and the unhappy housewives and the shallow, pedantic millennials will start to glow and shimmer.
    — Heather Havrilesky, The Cut, 13 Sep. 2017
  • There is a lesson here — about friendship, and sharing — but the book never feels plodding or pedantic.
    — Julia Turner, New York Times, 12 May 2017
  • At the risk of sounding pedantic, the classic consumer journey feels shallow.
    — Prince Ghuman, Forbes, 2 Oct. 2021
  • Only a dude could have thrown an internet tantrum so pedantic.
    — Kat Stoeffel, The Cut, 24 Aug. 2017
  • But, like most tiresome arguments over pedantic details, the case was not closed in the public forum.
    — Kat Eschner, Smithsonian, 10 May 2017
  • And yes, pedantic grading rubrics and exams don’t provide the kind of warmth that traumatized young people need.
    — C. Brandon Ogbunu, Wired, 2 Sep. 2020
  • But, like most tiresome arguments over pedantic details, the case was not closed in the public forum.
    — Kat Eschner, Smithsonian, 10 May 2017
  • Playwright James Still packs all this and too much more into his metaphor-heavy, pedantic script without doing any of it justice.
    — Chicago Reader, 14 Sep. 2017
  • But the pedantic tone Trebek took toward wrong responses made the right answers feel even more special.
    — Mansee Khurana, The Atlantic, 10 Nov. 2020
  • The point was not the pedantic collection of information.
    — Sheila Heti, The New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2025
  • Sure, these long-winded accounts can sometimes come off as pedantic, but more often than not, the devil is truly in the details.
    — Vulture Editors, Vulture, 12 Feb. 2021
  • That said, the main objection to the Newseum’s decision isn’t pedantic.
    — Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 6 Aug. 2018
  • This is a meal that is narrative without being pedantic.
    — Brett Martin, GQ, 23 Apr. 2018
  • There is a reason books about architecture are not more popular; most of them are dull, pedantic, just plain bad.
    — Hugo Lindgren, Curbed, 22 Mar. 2021
  • In Wagner’s libretto, the second act closes with a comedic riot sparked by a misunderstanding and an attack on the character Beckmesser, a pedantic villain coded as a kind of Jewish outsider.
    — Joshua Barone, New York Times, 18 Feb. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pedantic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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