picky

adjective

ˈpi-kē 

pickier; pickiest

: very careful or too careful about choosing or accepting things : fussy, choosy

a picky eater

Because pen collectors are a picky lot, and some antiques dealers who are not in the pen business can overlook the details of condition, there is occasional friction.

—Bill Holland

With rising ticket prices and new competition from cable TV, cost-conscious families may be pickier about the movies they choose to see.

—David Ansen and Martin Kasindorf

pickiness noun

Taylor mocks Zavala for the size of his extended Mexican family, their endless chatter and the frequency of their quinceaneras. Zavala ribs Taylor for his white-person pickiness about artisanal coffee and marriage.

—Belinda Luscombe

Now jobless and forced to live with five housemates in San Jose, Calif., she comes away from every job interview discouraged by employers' pickiness.

—Daniel McGinn

Synonyms of picky

• choosy
• finicky
• careful
• nice
• fussy
• particular
• persnickety
• demanding
• fastidious
• pernickety
• exacting
• selective
• dainty
• finical
• delicate

Examples of picky in a Sentence

a picky cat who would only eat one particular kind of food, and only if it was served in his special dish

she's picky, but she always finds the best quality in fresh meat and fish

Recent Examples on the Web

Did Argentina benefit, in the last 16, from a by-the-rules but picky VAR decision that nixed a quality goal by Egypt? — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 19 July 2026

Yellow and green squash add a good dose of veggies to this baked pasta, but are combined with enough gooey cheese that the picky eaters won’t even mind. — Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 17 July 2026

If neither meal is found to be appetizing, the winner is simply determined by what the picky eater finds least repulsive. — Matt Minton, Variety, 15 July 2026

An unintended consequence of my career as a beauty editor is that my sisters have become very picky skin care experts in their own right. — Tamim Alnuweiri, InStyle, 14 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1917, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for picky

• dickie
• dicky
• hickey
• micky
• nicky
• quickie
• rickey
• sticky
• tricky
• colicky

Kids Definition

picky

adjective

ˈpik-ē 

pickier; pickiest

: fussy sense 2b, finicky