NIGGLING Synonyms: 101 Similar and Opposite Words

niggling 1 of 2

adjective

ˈni-g(ə-)liŋ

Definition of niggling

as in slight

so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention only niggling differences between the original Broadway musical and the film version that followed

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

niggling

2 of 2

verb

present participle of niggle

as in complaining

to make often peevish criticisms or objections about matters that are minor, unimportant, or irrelevant you know it drives me crazy when you niggle like that

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of niggling

Adjective

As the kids grow up and move out, and as your space starts feeling like a little too much upkeep, a niggling thought about downsizing may start to grow louder. — Wendy Rose Gould, Martha Stewart, 7 July 2026 Their season has been busy, grumpy and overstretched, and pressure has been a niggling, constant companion, particularly at home, but their opponents on Sunday were hapless, soft in defence and muddled in their thinking. — George Caulkin, New York Times, 18 May 2026 The sellers got slightly more than their asking price without any niggling 11th-hour negotiations. — Kim Velsey, Curbed, 29 Aug. 2024 And yet, a niggling sense of loss remains after the season 5 finale; many of Diana’s most important moments and relationships are relegated to a handful of scenes. — Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, 10 Nov. 2022

Verb

Today the danger is swarms of malevolent AI agents, the CEOs in question run frontier labs, and legal niggling risks holding up an urgent safety conversation. — Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 17 Sep. 2026 For Neal, there was always a niggling concern that fans of the pod wouldn’t return to the series, but thankfully this couldn’t have been further from the eventual truth. — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 11 Aug. 2026 The new calculation, made at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, could help solve a niggling mystery about this particle’s mass. — Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American, 10 Apr. 2026 Henry dismisses Yasmin but can’t shake the niggling feeling that his wife isn’t entirely wrong. — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 16 Feb. 2026 There are niggling, nagging, familiar concerns, like not taking chances, like being hit on the counter, but our section erupts when Willock scores and then erupts again when his goal is ruled out. — George Caulkin, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2026 The hard part of getting cars to drive themselves is the last niggling 1 percent of reliability. — IEEE Spectrum, 18 Oct. 2016

Recent Examples of Synonyms for niggling

Adjective

The Weather Prediction Center has already placed most of South Florida under a Level 2 risk of excessive heavy rainfall with a slight risk of flash flooding on Sunday.

— Lissette Gonzalez, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
Yet Georgia coach Kirby Smart wasn’t surprised in the slightest to see Puglisi step in and execute the offense.

— Connor Riley, AJC.com, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of slight

Verb

That March, a seventy-year-old patient from a wealthy Cypriot family, Evie Lanitis, arrived at BioMed, complaining of a host of minor maladies, including bursitis in her toes, dental pain, and digestive issues.

— D. T. Max, New Yorker, 26 Oct. 2026
This was the first opportunity, Ubovic said, to do something tangible, instead of just complaining.

— Chris Massaro, FOXNews.com, 23 Oct. 2026

Definition of complaining

Adjective

If interest expense exceeds nominal GDP growth, a debt spiral could occur.

— Justin Zacks, CNBC, 23 Oct. 2026
Municipal compost operations tend only to accept leaves generated by that town and may also provide small quantities of finished compost to residents for free or at a nominal charge, according to DEEP.

— Stephen Underwood, Hartford Courant, 18 Oct. 2026

Definition of nominal

Verb

Advertisement Given all the change that artificial intelligence is predicted to bring, quibbling over word choice might seem pedantic, like arguing about the Latin name of a tree’s species while the forest burns.

— David Litt, Time, 23 Oct. 2026
Joy Randolph and John Early, as the two Afterlife Coordinators, have a quibbling charisma, but the movie should have done more with all its possible versions of paradise, figuring out how to use them comedically instead of just as easy punchlines.

— Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 10 Sep. 2025

Definition of quibbling

Adjective

The debut show from the pact, about the disappearance of Spanish petty criminal El Nani, remains in development, Corral confirmed.

— Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 20 Oct. 2026
Before the arrival of the Sisters of Mary Morning Star, the death row inmates had been plagued by petty infighting.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2026

Definition of petty

Adjective

But SpaceX would just go from EPS that’s a minuscule negative to a tiny positive.

— Shawn Tully, Fortune, 22 Oct. 2026
This tiny wearable device could record thousands of individual neurons simultaneously as animals swim, play, explore, and interact naturally.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of tiny

Verb

It's been a big few months for Austin Abrams moaning and groaning his way through some of the worst situations imaginable.

— Megan McCluskey, Time, 16 Oct. 2026
For a cold moment the silence locked a grip on our table, though it was broken, at the edges, by the golf commentators moaning and harrumphing, Rory McIlroy having had a canary on a seventeenth fairway somewhere this championship Sunday.

— Kevin Barry, New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2026