What does "anal-retentive" mean?

Preoccupied with achieving perfection, order and control and with collecting, possessing, and retaining objects.

What is a synonym for "anal-retentive"?

Common synonyms include: anal, demanding, fastidious, finicky, lily-handed, nitty.

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Adjective

1
Preoccupied with achieving perfection, order and control and with collecting, possessing, and retaining objects.
2
Overly obsessive concerning small details. broadly

From anal + retentive. First use appears c. 1936 in the writings of Marjorie Brierley.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.