pedantic

[ puh-dan-tik ]

/ pəˈdæn tɪk /

ostentatious in one's learning.

overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, especially in teaching.

Also Archaic, pe·dan·ti·cal.

Origin of pedantic

First recorded in 1590–1600; pedant + -ic

2 didactic, doctrinaire.

pe·dan·ti·cal·ly, adverb pe·dan·ti·cal·ness, noun sem·i·pe·dan·tic, adjective sem·i·pe·dan·ti·cal, adjective

sem·i·pe·dan·ti·cal·ly, adverb un·pe·dan·tic, adjective un·pe·dan·ti·cal, adjective

I do not think that success will come by a pedantical insistence upon correctness in form without regard to the sense.

College Teaching |Paul Klapper
There remain two appendices touching the tradition of knowledge, the one critical, the other pedantical.

The Advancement of Learning |Francis Bacon
It took at least five minutes before the wearisome, pedantical fellow had finished his arrangements and preparations.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 347, September, 1844 |Various

pedantic

/ (pɪˈdæntɪk) /

of, relating to, or characterized by pedantry

pedantically, adverb