persnickety
/pɚˈsnɪ.kɪ.ti/
persnickety is the US standard form of pernickety.
Meaning of pernickety
Adjective
pernickety (comparative more pernickety, superlative most pernickety)
- Fussy; paying undue attention to minor details; fastidious.
- ‘You must forgive me,’ he said. ‘I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, but then when I’m working I generally have to eat my meals...1953, Ian Fleming, chapter 8, in Casino Royale, page 48
- Synonyms:
- niggly, persnickety, anal-retentive, choosy, conscientious, dainty, exacting, fastidious, finical, finicking
- Requiring attention to minor details.
Synonyms of persnickety
Forms of persnickety
| comparative | more persnickety |
|---|---|
| superlative | most persnickety |
Origin of persnickety
From Scots persnickety, whence also pernickety. More at pernickety.
Words formed from persnickety
Questions about persnickety
- What is persnickety the US standard form of?
- Persnickety is the US standard form of pernickety.
- How do you pronounce persnickety?
- Persnickety is pronounced /pɚˈsnɪ.kɪ.ti/.
Words near persnickety in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: persnickety (page history and authors); pernickety (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-persnickety.wav.
Cite this entry: “persnickety.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/persnickety. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.