pedantic

Adjective

pedantic (comparative more pedantic, superlative most pedantic)

1. Being overly concerned with formal rules and trivial points of learning, like a pedant.
   • Bad news for a certain kind of pedantic patriot (look away now, Jacob Rees-Mogg). Prince Charles has debased the English language – and in a letter to a foreign potentate, no less.2019 April 18, David Shariatmadari, “Ize on the prize: is Prince Charles the last guardian of British spelling?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 16 Aug 2019

   Synonyms:

   anal-retentive, fussy, nit-picky

2. Tending to show off one’s knowledge, often in a tiresome manner.
   • 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,"...1825, "Works" by Maria Edgeworth page 150
   • The style is pedantic and reviewish: but I can easily fancy states of mind to which it may be no less salutary on that account.1838, Richard Hurrell Froude, John Henry Newman, John Keble, Remains of the Late Reverend Richard Hurrell Froude, page 416

   Synonyms:

   nit-picky, ostentatious, pedagogical, pretentious