pernickety

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
21
Words With Friends
23
Letters
10
Pronunciation
/pəˈnɪk.ɪ.ti/
See all 3 pronunciations
/pəˈnɪk.ɪ.ti/ · /pəˈnɪk.ə.ti/ · [pəˈnɪk.ə.ɾi]

Definition of pernickety

2 senses · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK)Fussy; paying undue attention to minor details; fastidious.
    “‘You must forgive me,’ he said. ‘I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, but then when I’m working I generally have to eat my meals alone and it makes them more interesting when one takes trouble.’”
See all 2 definitions

adj

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK)Fussy; paying undue attention to minor details; fastidious.
    “‘You must forgive me,’ he said. ‘I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It comes partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details. It’s very pernickety and old-maidish really, but then when I’m working I generally have to eat my meals alone and it makes them more interesting when one takes trouble.’”
  2. Requiring attention to minor details.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Scots pernickety, persnickety, apparently from per- + nick (“a notch, mark, cutting retort”) + -et (“-ed”) + -y; equivalent to English per- + nick + -ety; literally, “marked up”, then “overly precise”. The alternative form persnickety, with s, may be due to substitution of Scots sneck (“a cut, notch”) for nick. Compare also Scots variants pernicked, pernicket, pirnicky, and pernicky.

Words you can make from pernickety

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Best play pickney 18 points

8-letter words

3 words

7-letter words

16 words

6-letter words

51 words

5-letter words

67 words

4-letter words

62 words

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