as in careful
hard to please
an Oxford don who's definitely a pernickety old chap
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for pernickety
Adjective
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Determination and careful calculations — hold on, carry the 2 — are a must.
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Graduate students face lower federal limits and the loss of Grad PLUS, requiring careful financial planning.
Adjective
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The idea of apps like Partiful are to eliminate the need for finicky email threads and groupchats with a bunch of unknown numbers by instead putting all the info – guest list, event details and photos – in one place.
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Part of the problem is that, outside of their tenants’ pleas, landlords face neither any real pressure nor any legal requirement to install shutters and ceiling fans; even owners who want to do so are thwarted by recalcitrant co-op boards or finicky historic-preservation reviews.
Adjective
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Imagine creating a new standard of hypersensitive caution about attracting even the most persnickety media criticism, and then applying it for the first time to your son’s wedding.
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Francesca’s pinnacle Once a Regency world has implied there’s mass print culture capable of speedy and pervasive distribution of colored images, something as persnickety as vocabulary is probably beside the point.
Adjective
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The Supreme Court’s rulings have landed with particular force in South Florida, which is home to the largest share of Venezuelan immigrants in the country.
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And Ormund Hightower appears to be very capable at this particular game, which should come as no surprise given Otto was his uncle and the Hightowers are wildly rich and powerful.
Adjective
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Making mini lava cakes is fussy, but this large format variation is as easy as can be.
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Visually, Jaron’s clean lines and subtle stitching give it a timeless look that is anything but fussy.
Adjective
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Again, these shops—think Plato’s Closet or Uptown Cheapskate—are picky and often cater to a younger audience.
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McLaughlin admits that years of parenting picky eaters helped inspire the central idea behind the project.
Adjective
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The irony is that in not trying to pass muster with more conservative theatergoers (and their fastidious institutional guardians), playwrights have been winning over not just critics but also formerly squeamish artistic directors and perennially nervous Broadway producers.
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Diana was fastidious about controlling her narrative.
Adjective
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Building a paper airplane can be as demanding as building the airframe of a real aircraft.
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Once the evaluation process is complete, the company plans to scale production to thousands of units over the next three years, targeting manufacturers seeking to automate physically demanding and hazardous work.
Cite this Entry
“Pernickety.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pernickety. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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