PEDANTRY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pedantry mean? 

• PEDANTRY (noun)
  The noun PEDANTRY has 1 sense:

1. an ostentatious and inappropriate display of learning

  Familiarity information: PEDANTRY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PEDANTRY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An ostentatious and inappropriate display of learning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("pedantry" is a kind of...):

fanfare; flash; ostentation (a gaudy outward display)

Derivation:

pedantic (marked by a narrow focus on or display of learning especially its trivial aspects)

 Context examples 

His gentleness was never tinged by dogmatism, and his instructions were given with an air of frankness and good nature that banished every idea of pedantry.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

We came back to town quietly, taking a 'bus to Hyde Park Corner. Jonathan thought it would interest me to go into the Row for a while, so we sat down; but there were very few people there, and it was sad-looking and desolate to see so many empty chairs. It made us think of the empty chair at home; so we got up and walked down Piccadilly. Jonathan was holding me by the arm, the way he used to in old days before I went to school. I felt it very improper, for you can't go on for some years teaching etiquette and decorum to other girls without the pedantry of it biting into yourself a bit; but it was Jonathan, and he was my husband, and we didn't know anybody who saw us—and we didn't care if they did—so on we walked.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)