as in teacher
disapproving
a person who annoys other people by correcting small errors and giving too much attention to minor details
They found the professor to be a dull pedant more concerned with the intricacies of punctuation than the craft of writing.
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Recent Examples of pedant
The profile of the pedant has changed surprisingly across time periods and cultures, but what’s constant is that nobody wants to be called one.
—
The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026
Avery, the heroine of Anika Jade Levy’s debut novel, Flat Earth (Catapult, $26), spends many turgid nights with a pedant.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 23 Nov. 2025
As botanists and pedants will tell you, figs are technically a flower, not a fruit.
—Emily Saladino, Bon Appetit Magazine, 20 Sep. 2025
Incidentally, for the pedants out there (WIRED salutes you), technically this is not a jet ski, but a personal watercraft, or PWC.
—WIRED, 18 Nov. 2023
As knowledge of Greek has become more exotic—the mark of pedants, nerds, and graduates of expensive schools—capturing the barbarism of ancient Greek, and of the ancient Greeks themselves, has become harder.
—Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 2 Oct. 2023
Want to annoy an investing pedant?
—Spencer Jakab, WSJ, 13 Feb. 2023
True, big global history is not for pedants and must be selective to remain accessible.
—Walter Scheidel, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022
The highest-energy moment comes when Rob Brydon and David Mitchell have a pedant off about Jeremy Clarkson’s firing.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 1 Jan. 2022
The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026
Avery, the heroine of Anika Jade Levy’s debut novel, Flat Earth (Catapult, $26), spends many turgid nights with a pedant.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 23 Nov. 2025
As botanists and pedants will tell you, figs are technically a flower, not a fruit.
—Emily Saladino, Bon Appetit Magazine, 20 Sep. 2025
Incidentally, for the pedants out there (WIRED salutes you), technically this is not a jet ski, but a personal watercraft, or PWC.
—WIRED, 18 Nov. 2023
As knowledge of Greek has become more exotic—the mark of pedants, nerds, and graduates of expensive schools—capturing the barbarism of ancient Greek, and of the ancient Greeks themselves, has become harder.
—Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 2 Oct. 2023
Want to annoy an investing pedant?
—Spencer Jakab, WSJ, 13 Feb. 2023
True, big global history is not for pedants and must be selective to remain accessible.
—Walter Scheidel, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022
The highest-energy moment comes when Rob Brydon and David Mitchell have a pedant off about Jeremy Clarkson’s firing.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 1 Jan. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pedant
teacher
Noun
-
My task is to read their unpublished, often unfinished writing—less as a teacher or as an editor than as a cheerfully unlicensed therapist.—
David O’Neill,
New Yorker,
20 May 2026
-
An imam said teachers, students and other school staff members who were at the mosque are safe.—
Dennis Romero,
NBC news,
19 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Pedant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pedant. Accessed 22 May. 2026.
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