NIGGLING Synonyms: 101 Similar and Opposite Words

niggling 1 of 2

adjective

ˈni-g(ə-)liŋ

Definition of niggling

as in slight

so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention only niggling differences between the original Broadway musical and the film version that followed

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

niggling

2 of 2

verb

present participle of niggle

as in complaining

to make often peevish criticisms or objections about matters that are minor, unimportant, or irrelevant you know it drives me crazy when you niggle like that

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of niggling

Adjective

As the kids grow up and move out, and as your space starts feeling like a little too much upkeep, a niggling thought about downsizing may start to grow louder. — Wendy Rose Gould, Martha Stewart, 7 July 2026 Their season has been busy, grumpy and overstretched, and pressure has been a niggling, constant companion, particularly at home, but their opponents on Sunday were hapless, soft in defence and muddled in their thinking. — George Caulkin, New York Times, 18 May 2026 The sellers got slightly more than their asking price without any niggling 11th-hour negotiations. — Kim Velsey, Curbed, 29 Aug. 2024 And yet, a niggling sense of loss remains after the season 5 finale; many of Diana’s most important moments and relationships are relegated to a handful of scenes. — Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, 10 Nov. 2022

Verb

Today the danger is swarms of malevolent AI agents, the CEOs in question run frontier labs, and legal niggling risks holding up an urgent safety conversation. — Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 17 Sep. 2026 For Neal, there was always a niggling concern that fans of the pod wouldn’t return to the series, but thankfully this couldn’t have been further from the eventual truth. — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 11 Aug. 2026 The new calculation, made at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, could help solve a niggling mystery about this particle’s mass. — Clara Moskowitz, Scientific American, 10 Apr. 2026 Henry dismisses Yasmin but can’t shake the niggling feeling that his wife isn’t entirely wrong. — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 16 Feb. 2026 There are niggling, nagging, familiar concerns, like not taking chances, like being hit on the counter, but our section erupts when Willock scores and then erupts again when his goal is ruled out. — George Caulkin, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2026 The hard part of getting cars to drive themselves is the last niggling 1 percent of reliability. — IEEE Spectrum, 18 Oct. 2016

Recent Examples of Synonyms for niggling

Adjective

Although this represents a slight premium compared to the broader gaming industry mean, Wynn's justifies a premium.

— Michael Khouw, CNBC, 11 Nov. 2026
The Chiefs were pushed back 5 yards and on the do-over, Malcolm Roach sacked Mahomes, who complained afterward that Moore's movement was so slight as to not merit a flag in that crucial situation.

— ABC News, ABC News, 10 Nov. 2026

Definition of slight

Verb

By July, morale among immigration officers had dipped below its nadir during the Biden Administration, with agents now complaining of being overextended, inundated with novice recruits, and undermined by inflammatory rhetoric from on high.

— Francisco Cantú, New Yorker, 2 Nov. 2026
Some 35,000 plaintiffs were compensated after complaining of personal injury and property damage to their homes.

— ABC News, ABC News, 2 Nov. 2026

Definition of complaining

Adjective

While this milestone drew headlines, nominal dollar numbers are the wrong metric to focus on in connection with fiscal matters.

— Steve H. Hanke, Fortune, 7 Nov. 2026
Deflation and weak corporate profitability are already eroding China’s fiscal revenues, which have basically been flat in nominal terms since 2019.

— Oliver Melton, Foreign Affairs, 5 Nov. 2026

Definition of nominal

Verb

Advertisement Given all the change that artificial intelligence is predicted to bring, quibbling over word choice might seem pedantic, like arguing about the Latin name of a tree’s species while the forest burns.

— David Litt, Time, 23 Oct. 2026
Joy Randolph and John Early, as the two Afterlife Coordinators, have a quibbling charisma, but the movie should have done more with all its possible versions of paradise, figuring out how to use them comedically instead of just as easy punchlines.

— Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 10 Sep. 2025

Definition of quibbling

Adjective

Morrow is a 45-year-old woman convicted of misdemeanor assault and three petty offenses for blocking a Department of Homeland Security building and touching an agent’s shoulder in south Charlotte last November.

— Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 5 Nov. 2026
More recently, Newsom has resisted calls to fund Proposition 36, a ballot measure that levies harsher penalties for petty crime that voters overwhelmingly approved in 2024.

— Sacbee.com, Sacbee.com, 5 Nov. 2026

Definition of petty

Verb

It's been a big few months for Austin Abrams moaning and groaning his way through some of the worst situations imaginable.

— Megan McCluskey, Time, 16 Oct. 2026
For a cold moment the silence locked a grip on our table, though it was broken, at the edges, by the golf commentators moaning and harrumphing, Rory McIlroy having had a canary on a seventeenth fairway somewhere this championship Sunday.

— Kevin Barry, New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2026