hair-splitting
adjective
• characterized by or fond of small and overfine distinctions.
• "the legal experts have a particularly hair-splitting mentality"
Similar:
quibbling,
fault-finding,
niggling,
cavilling,
carping,
captious,
critical,
criticizing,
disapproving,
censorious,
judgemental,
overcritical,
hypercritical,
pedantic,
punctilious,
pettifogging,
pass-remarkable,
nitpicking,
picky,
pernickety,
persnickety,
nice,
overnice,
hair-splitting
noun
• the action of making small and overfine distinctions; quibbling.
split hairs
• make small and unnecessary distinctions.
• "this may seem like splitting hairs but the distinction could be important"
