Persnickety

//pɚˈsnɪ.kɪ.ti// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    US standard form of pernickety. US, alt-of, standard

    "Marjorie glanced up and down the long street. “Well, I never in my life saw so many different kinds of houses!” she exclaimed. “Aren’t they funny! Why, they look almost like people. Look at that little persnickety one over there — the white, white one with the green, green blinds — doesn’t it look exactly like —”"

Adjective
  1. 1
    characterized by excessive precision and attention to trivial details wordnet
  2. 2
    (used colloquially) overly conceited or arrogant wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
bigheadedchoosedaintydelicatedemandingdifficult

Example

More examples

"She's very persnickety about her food."

Etymology

From Scots persnickety, whence also pernickety. More at pernickety.

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