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
This may sound like hairsplitting, but when it comes to Verdi’s longest opera, less is less, even with a strong cast like the Met’s for this revival.
From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2022
On Thursday, the court perhaps did not invalidate most such restrictions, but it condemned itself to years of judicial hairsplitting in search of a principle about balancing judgments.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 23, 2022
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
On the other hand, the Tossafists, the school of commentators succeeding him, by their petty quibbling and hairsplitting casuistry made the Talmudic books more intricate and less intelligible.
From Jewish History : an essay in the philosophy of history by Dubnow, S. M. (Simon Markovich)
