Pedant
['ped(ə)nt] or ['pɛdnt]
Definition
(noun.) a person who pays more attention to formal rules and book learning than they merit.
Inputed by Gracie--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A schoolmaster; a pedagogue.
(n.) One who puts on an air of learning; one who makes a vain display of learning; a pretender to superior knowledge.
Checked by Brett
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Pretender to learning.
Editor: Trudy
Definition
n. one who makes a vain display of learning: a pretender to knowledge which he does not possess: (Shak.) a pedagogue.—adjs. Pedant′ic -al displaying knowledge for the sake of showing.—adv. Pedant′ically in a pedantic manner.—ns. Pedant′icism Ped′antism.—v.i. Ped′antise to play the pedant.—ns. Pedantoc′racy government by pedants; Ped′antry acts manners or character of a pedant: vain display of learning: (Swift) the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.
Edited by Julia
Examples
- But there I am perhaps somewhat of a pedant. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Try to judge the great beliefs that have swayed mankind by their inner logic or their empirical solidity and you stand forever, a dull pedant, apart from the interests of men. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- No wonder that mankind have been in the habit of calling statesmen of this class pedants, sophisters, doctrinaires, visionaries. Plato. The Republic.
Checked by Beth