Meaning of Pedantry | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An excessive attention to detail or rules.
   countable, uncountable
2. An instance of such behaviour.
   countable, uncountable
3. An overly ambitious display of learning.
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“They had heard people call things pedantic, which they did not think were so ; for instance, a boy had once said that Harry himself was a pedant, for talking of the siege of Syracuse, and of the machines used there, because the boy knew nothing about them, and disliked reading. "Then you perceive," said his mother, "that the meaning of the word varies with the different degrees of knowledge of those who use it. I remember when it was thought pedantic for a woman to talk of some books, which are now the subject of common conversation. Sometimes old-fashioned learning, and sometimes useless learning, is called pedantry; and it is generally thought pedantic to produce any kind of learning that is so unusual, that it is not likely that the company is acquainted with it, or can be pleased by it. In short, pedantry may be said to be an ill-timed parade of knowledge."”

“Another point on which Smart insists is the distinction between serf and surf […] A distinction can of course be made, and without much difficulty, by those who think of it, and is made by those who have formed a habit of doing so; but the distinction is so rarely made as to amount almost to pedantry […]”

“I don’t want to listen to your pedantries anymore.”

“[T]he southern court of the ballium had become a flower-garden, with quaint terraces, statues, knots of flowers, clipped yews and hollies, and all the pedantries of the topiarian art.”

CEFR level