captiousness
- noun
- /ˈkæpʃəsnəs/
- The teacher's captiousness frustrated her students, who felt they were being graded on trivial errors instead of their overall understanding.
Examples
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His captiousness often made it difficult for colleagues to work with him, as he would nitpick every detail of their presentations.
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If you don't respond to the above, it will be an acknowledgment by you of the captiousness of your short sentence, which has more to do with settling old scores than with the reality of Obama's effectiveness.
Blog text (14) -
Her captiousness in discussions made it hard for her friends to share their opinions freely, fearing judgment over minor points.
Synonyms
Repeated small complaints about unimportant things that are not fair and often annoy people
A habit of thinking badly about people quickly without trying to understand them
A habit of always finding small mistakes in other people
A way of saying very harsh, unfair things about someone's work
Being quick to criticise other people
A habit of complaining often
Antonyms
How Critical
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Captiousness comes from a Latin root capere meaning 'to take', the same root you see in capture. Think of a captious person as someone who 'catches' tiny faults, so captiousness means finding small, unimportant mistakes.