| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fault-finding, detracting |
| Synonyms: | analytical, belittling, biting, calumniatory, captious, carping, caviling, cavillous, censorious, censuring, choleric, condemning, critic, cutting, cynical, demanding, demeaning, derogatory, diagnostic, disapproving, discerning, discriminating, disparaging, exacting, exceptive, finicky, fussy, hairsplitting, humbling, hypercritical, lowering, nagging, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, particular, penetrating, reproachful, sarcastic, satirical, scolding, severe, sharp, trenchant, withering |
| Antonyms: | complimentary, laudatory, praising |
| Main Entry: | fine |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | discriminating, exact |
| Synonyms: | abstruse, acute, clear, critical, cryptic, delicate, distinct, enigmatic, esoteric, fastidious, fine-spun, hairline, hairsplitting, intelligent, keen, minute, nice, obscure, petty, precise, pure, quick, recondite, refined, sensitive, sharp, sterling, strict, subtle, tasteful, tenuous, trifling, unadulterated, unpolluted |
| Antonyms: | awkward, crude, uncouth, undiscriminating, unrefined |
| Main Entry: | hypercritical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | captious |
| Synonyms: | carping, caviling, censorious, critical, demanding, faultfinding, finicky, fussy, hair-splitting, hard to please, niggling, nit-picking, overcritical, persnickety |
| Main Entry: | nice |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | precise, neat, refined |
| Synonyms: | accurate, becoming, befitting, careful, choosy, conforming, correct, critical, cultured, dainty, decent, delicate, discerning, discriminating, distinguishing, exact, exacting, fastidious, fine, finespun, finical, finicking, finicky*, fussy*, genteel, hairsplitting, meticulous, minute, particular, persnickety*, picky*, proper, respectable, right, rigorous, scrupulous, seemly, squeamish, strict, subtle, tidy, trim, trivial*, virtuous, well-bred |
| Antonyms: | disordered, imprecise, unmannerly, unrefined |
| Main Entry: | pedantic |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | bookish, precise |
| Synonyms: | abstruse, academic, arid, didactic, doctrinaire, donnish, dry, dull, egotistic, erudite, formal, fussy, hairsplitting, learned, nit-picking, ostentatious, overnice, particular, pedagogic, pompous, priggish, punctilious, scholastic, schoolish, sententious, stilted |
| Antonyms: | imprecise, informal |
| Main Entry: | subtle |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | nice, quiet, delicate |
| Synonyms: | attenuate, attenuated, deep, discriminating, ethereal, exquisite, faint, fine, finespun, hairline, hairsplitting, illusive, implied, inconspicuous, indirect, indistinct, inferred, ingenious, insinuated, mental, penetrating, profound, refined, slight, sophisticated, suggestive, tenuous, thin, understated |
| Antonyms: | hard, harsh, noisy, unsubtle |
| Main Entry: | nitpicking |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | niggling about details |
| Synonyms: | captious, hairsplitting |
| Main Entry: | quibbling |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | carping |
| Synonyms: | complaining, fault-finding, griping, hairsplitting, niggling, nit-picking |
| Main Entry: | quibbling |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | trifling |
| Synonyms: | captious, casuistic, caviling, elusive, evasive, hairsplitting, prevaricative, sophistic, sophistical |