Peccadillo
noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A small flaw or sin.
"We tolerate Irene and Phil’s mild racist quirks and planet-destroying peccadilloes (“I could never own any car smaller than my Cutlass Supreme”) because their existence acts as a tranquilizer in an otherwise slightly-out-of-control world."
- 2 a petty misdeed wordnet
- 3 A petty offense.
"When he comes to the prayer, he sometimes does me the honor of personally recommending me to the Lord, advising him that I am a worthy man and begging him to condone my occasional peccadillos."
Example
More examples"We tolerate Irene and Phil’s mild racist quirks and planet-destroying peccadilloes (“I could never own any car smaller than my Cutlass Supreme”) because their existence acts as a tranquilizer in an otherwise slightly-out-of-control world."
Etymology
From Spanish pecadillo, diminutive form of pecado (“sin”), from Latin peccatum (“sin, error, fault”), from peccō (“I sin, offend”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.