Pickiness

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    picky behaviour uncountable

    "Between 6 and 12 months, babies are more open to new foods — and new experiences — than they will be later on as toddlers, when a certain amount of “neophobia” or “new means no” is developmentally normal, Ms. Lipner said. “Normal kids transition through a normal pickiness phase,” around 18 months, she said, when “they’re also learning autonomy and control.”"

  2. 2
    The quality of being picky. uncountable

Example

More examples

"Between 6 and 12 months, babies are more open to new foods — and new experiences — than they will be later on as toddlers, when a certain amount of “neophobia” or “new means no” is developmentally normal, Ms. Lipner said. “Normal kids transition through a normal pickiness phase,” around 18 months, she said, when “they’re also learning autonomy and control.”"

Etymology

From picky + -ness.

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