Noun our lives don't amount to a picayune in the great scheme of things Adjective They argued over the most picayune details. the picayune ponderings of a commentator who steadfastly believes other cultures are inferior to our own

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective

If the last few months should have taught us anything, it’s the realization that who stands at proper attention for a flag and who chooses not to is a rather picayune thing to worry about given our current circumstances as a country. Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, "Opinion: NBA players kneeling during the national anthem doesn't seem like an act of defiance," 1 Aug. 2020

That’s just a small sampling of often picayune, disingenuous, and unreliable factchecks that litter most of the efforts of the Post — which mentions Obama 13 times in a piece about Trump’s speech — the Associated Press, CNN, and so on. David Harsanyi, National Review, "Factcheckers Have Become the Janissaries of the Obama Legacy," 5 Feb. 2020

However picayune and pitifully old-fashioned the bereavement may seem to most people, for me the erosion of style, clarity, and precision in everyday speech and prose is a loss. Lionel Shriver, Harper's magazine, "Semantic Drift," 22 July 2019

No detail was too insignificant; no question too picayune for our scrutiny. Sarah Lyall, BostonGlobe.com, "There’s a big wedding Saturday. Something about a prince marrying an American," 15 May 2018

No detail was too insignificant; no question too picayune for our scrutiny. Sarah Lyall, BostonGlobe.com, "There’s a big wedding Saturday. Something about a prince marrying an American," 15 May 2018

More often than not, the police station fielded neighborhood disputes that were remarkable for their picayune character. Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, "The Case of the Purloined Poultry: How ISIS Prosecuted Petty Crime," 1 July 2018

The cascade of picayune tariffs and aggressive trade rhetoric directed indiscriminately against allies and competitors alike could inflict lasting damage on US companies’ ability to compete globally. Zachary Karabell, WIRED, "Trump's Trade War Won't Hurt China. It Could Hurt US Tech," 27 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'picayune.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.