as in teachers
disapproving
a person who annoys other people by correcting small errors and giving too much attention to minor details
They found the professor to be a dull pedant more concerned with the intricacies of punctuation than the craft of writing.
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Recent Examples of pedants
Medieval schoolmen worrying over Aristotle could be pedants; so could cultivated female salonnières in seventeenth-century Paris.
—
Clare Bucknell, The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026
As botanists and pedants will tell you, figs are technically a flower, not a fruit.
—Emily Saladino, Bon Appetit Magazine, 20 Sep. 2025
Clare Bucknell, The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026
As botanists and pedants will tell you, figs are technically a flower, not a fruit.
—Emily Saladino, Bon Appetit Magazine, 20 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pedants
teachers
Noun
-
On the chopping block are six intervention teachers serving students who need intensive academic help.—
Howard Blume,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Apr. 2026
-
The recommendations span the gamut of expanding research into hate crime data, improving security funding, addressing the display of hate symbols, expanding social media and digital literacy, and increasing educational resources for professionals teachers and students.—
Beth Bailey,
FOXNews.com,
29 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Pedants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pedants. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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