Kim Marcus
Did you know?
If you’re a reader of a certain age (say, a Boomer, Gen Xer, or even a Xennial), you may remember cheeky television commercials featuring Morris, a finicky housecat who only eats a certain brand of cat food. (Morris is still featured on product labels.) Morris's tastes in cuisine are not only very particular, but very fine as well, and that's appropriate given the origin of finicky. The word came about as an alteration of finicking, itself an alteration of another adjective, finical. It's believed that finical derives from the adjective fine.
Synonyms
Examples of finicky in a Sentence
Sheena Vasani, The Verge, 2 Oct. 2024
Moreover, while statisticians can find ways to correct for this, Rubin realized that their methods tended to be finicky and specialized, with each situation practically requiring its own master’s thesis.
—Quanta Magazine, 2 Oct. 2024
The naturist doctors Gaston and André Durville developed a finicky diet regime and organized nearly nude beauty contests, popularizing the idea of a female figure that adhered to classical ideals.
—Lauren Collins, The New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2024
School-children can be finicky eaters, and their tastes may change frequently.
—Katherine Lee, Parents, 30 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for finicky 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'finicky.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near finicky
Cite this Entry
“Finicky.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/finicky. Accessed 16 Oct. 2024.
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