Synonyms for "pedantic"

 You're looking for synonyms for "pedantic"! Here's a breakdown, categorized by slightly different nuances:

Focusing on Overly Concerned with Rules/Details:

• Formal:

  • Meticulous: While often positive, can lean towards excessive detail.
  • Scrupulous: Again, usually positive, but can imply excessive attention to minutiae.
  • Fastidious: Can suggest being overly concerned with cleanliness and detail.
  • Exact: Can be used to describe someone who insists on precise accuracy.
  • Precise: Similar to exact, emphasizing accuracy.
  • Rigorous: Implies strict adherence to rules or methods.
  • Punctilious: Emphasizes strict attention to detail and correct behavior.

• More Negative Connotations:

  • Hair-splitting: Focuses on making overly fine distinctions.
  • Nitpicking: Emphasizes finding and criticizing trivial faults.
  • Caviling: Similar to nitpicking, but can also imply raising petty objections.
  • Quibbling: Arguing or raising objections about trivial matters.
  • Legalistic: Suggests an excessive adherence to the letter of the law or rules.
  • Formalistic: Emphasizes adherence to outward forms and conventions rather than substance.

Focusing on Showing Off Knowledge:

• Condescending: Implies a patronizing display of knowledge.
• Patronizing: Similar to condescending, treating others as inferior due to perceived superior knowledge.
• Didactic: Often used for teaching, but can imply being overly instructive and preachy.
• Preachy: Suggests giving unwanted advice in a moralizing way.
• Lecturing: Implies giving a lengthy and often unwanted explanation.
• Know-it-all: An informal term for someone who acts as if they know everything.
• Wiseacre: An archaic term for someone who affects wisdom but is often foolish.

Focusing on Being Unimaginative/Literal:

• Literal-minded: Lacking imagination or understanding beyond the surface meaning.
• Unimaginative: Lacking creativity or originality.
• Prosaic: Lacking poetic beauty or excitement; ordinary and dull.

Which synonym is best depends on the specific nuance you want to convey. Consider the context and the reason you're looking for a synonym. Are you emphasizing their attention to detail, their tendency to correct others on minor points, or their desire to show off their knowledge?

For example:

• Instead of saying "He was being pedantic about the comma," you could say "He was being nitpicky about the comma."
• Instead of saying "Her pedantic explanation bored everyone," you could say "Her lecturing explanation bored everyone."
• Instead of saying "His pedantic adherence to the rules was frustrating," you could say "His legalistic adherence to the rules was frustrating."