hairsplitting
Use Hairsplitting in a sentence
ɪŋ noun
1.
the making of unnecessarily fine distinctions.
adjective
2.
characterized by such distinctions: the hairsplitting arguments of a political debate.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
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Link To hairsplitting
Collins
World English Dictionary
hairsplitting (ˈhɛəˌsplɪtɪŋ) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | the making of petty distinctions |
| —adj | |
| 2. | occupied with or based on petty distinctions |
| 'hairsplitter | |
| —n | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
00:10
Hairsplitting
is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
| a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
Example sentences
Hypercorrectness is another word for it, as is hairsplitting and nitpicking.
Unfortunately, the book is more hairsplitting than revisionist.
But the arid legal hairsplitting that dominates that chamber poses fewer policy problems than the messier lower courts do.
Remember that even hairsplitting is not so bad if what is inside the hair turns out to be important.
Nearby Words
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