pedant Hear it!

pedant definition

ped·ant (ped′'nt)

noun

  1. a person who puts unnecessary stress on minor or trivial points of learning, displaying a scholarship lacking in judgment or sense of proportion
  2. a narrow-minded teacher who insists on exact adherence to a set of arbitrary rules
  3. Obsolete a schoolmaster

Etymology: Fr pédant, pedant, schoolmaster < It pedante, ult. < Gr paidagōgos: see pedagogue

Related Forms:

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Alternate definitions:

telecom pedant definition - telecom

pedant Synonyms

pedant

n.

formalist, doctrinaire, dogmatist, methodologist, precisian, bluestocking, bookworm, pedagogue, egghead*, walking encyclopedia*.


Webster's New World Roget's A-Z Thesaurus Copyright © 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

pedant Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • annoy: Tautology: Always add ' back ' to words like return or revert in order to reverse their meaning and annoy pedants.

Adjective modifier

  • only: Only pedants claim that learning from books is education.
pedant usage examples (more)

The word usage examples above have been gathered from various sources to reflect current and historical usage. They do not represent the opinions of YourDictionary.com.

pedant quotes

Clear Cymric voices carry well this Autumn night, Aneurin and Taliesin, cruel owls for whom it is never altogether dark before the rules made poetry a pedant's game.

-Bunting, Basil

He that tries to recommend him by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in Hierocles, who, when he offered hishousetosale, carried a brick inhis pocket as a specimen.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson

A fertile pedant.

-Walpole, Horace, 4th Earl of Orford

pedant quotes (more)

Webster's New World Dictionary of Quotations Copyright © 2005 by Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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MLA Style

"pedant." Webster's New World College Dictionary. 2009

  • Your Dictionary. 5 July 2009
  • <www.yourdictionary.com/pedant>

APA Style

pedant. (2009). In Webster's New World College Dictionary

  • Retrieved July 5th, 2009, from www.yourdictionary.com/pedant

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