hairsplitting

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But Oedipus is in no mood for academic hairsplitting.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 13, 2025

Instead of transparency, however, Mr. Hogan dissembled, backed by a Greek chorus of question-dodging, hairsplitting, fast-talking officials in his administration.

From Washington Post • Dec. 6, 2020

Andy: See, this is what I mean: the smooth fox terrier and the wire fox terrier just feels like hairsplitting.

From New York Times • Feb. 11, 2020

This is a strange time to be debating the merits of truth in journalism on the stage—and it is journalism that John is practicing here, regardless of his genre hairsplitting.

From The New Yorker • Oct. 22, 2018

It is mere philosophical sophistry and hairsplitting, and we must believe, as a matter of fact, that physical energy is really physical, and not psychical, in its nature.

From The Problems of Psychical Research Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal by Carrington, Hereward