How to Use persnickety in a Sentence
persnickety
adjective-
Maybe also add a little note telling them not to get too persnickety about insuring the blade is mirror-shiny all the time.
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Helen Rosner,
New Yorker,
16 Nov. 2025
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Because of that pressurization level, passengers will experience less stress on their bodies and get more oxygen while onboard, which can help to reduce that persnickety jet lag.
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Nicole Hoey,
Robb Report,
9 Dec. 2025
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The champion’s mindset—persnickety, hyper-critical, focused—is back.
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Frederick Dreier,
Outside,
23 Dec. 2025
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The holdup has come from some persnickety deal points, like carving out international streaming rights and reaching consensus on the tech advancements Apple plans to use for its productions.
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Alex Harrington,
MSNBC Newsweek,
20 Sep. 2025
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Imagine creating a new standard of hypersensitive caution about attracting even the most persnickety media criticism, and then applying it for the first time to your son’s wedding.
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Jonathan Chait,
The Atlantic,
21 May 2026
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Meanwhile, a persnickety bank investigator, played by Tilda Swinton in a frizzle of red hair and clompy shoes, approaches Doyle with a serious charge.
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Stephanie Zacharek,
Time,
29 Oct. 2025
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Francesca’s pinnacle Once a Regency world has implied there’s mass print culture capable of speedy and pervasive distribution of colored images, something as persnickety as vocabulary is probably beside the point.
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Kathryn Vanarendonk,
Vulture,
11 Feb. 2026
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In the United States, the actor played secondary roles, usually weary, nervy authority figures, such as the stern mentor (Good Will Hunting) and the persnickety scientist (Deep Blue Sea).
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David Sims,
The Atlantic,
13 Mar. 2026
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'persnickety.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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