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pedantic

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Overly concerned with rules and details; in poetry, a tone of scholarly precision or stifling exactness.

Detailed Definition
In older literary use, pedantic often suggests a person who shows off learning in a dull or fussy way. Donne uses it as part of an insult to the sun, giving the speaker’s complaint a mock-scholarly edge.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide” mocks a person who displays learning smugly; Pope often satirizes pedantic critics who mistake rules for art; “His pedantic notes corrected the moon’s grammar,” uses the adjective humorously; A contemporary speaker may reject “pedantic names for grief” in favor of lived feeling
Additional Notes
In the line "Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide," the word is a specialized literary insult and may not be familiar in its older, sharper sense.; Found in the poem, The Sun Rising by John Donne
Also Known As
meticulous overly precise
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