pedantic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

His book, learned without being pedantic, reminds us how insistently earlier generations returned to the Revolution as a living argument—something to be invoked, revised and, at times, fought over.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026

Byrne, on the other hand, gives a worthy performance that saves “Tow” from its own pedantic trappings and functions as a similarly fed-up complement to her character in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.”

From Salon • Mar. 22, 2026

“One can read entire histories of American car culture and find no mention of Japanese or Asian American involvement,” Wang writes — but that’s about as pedantic as “Cruising J-Town” gets.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 30, 2025

Environmental films that are pedantic, prescriptive, or hold audiences by the collar to make them feel bad do more disservice than good, he says.

From BBC • Dec. 5, 2024

The international press was simply saturated with stories of violence from Africa, and this one was particularly bland and pedantic, the deputy editor wrote, but perhaps Richard could do a piece on the human angle?

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie