as in negligibility
the quality or state of being unimportant
the astonishing pettiness of most of the things that she fusses over
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Recent Examples of pettiness
The paranoia and pettiness between coach and general manager can no longer infect the locker room with Michael Malone and Calvin Booth long since fired.
—
Troy Renck, Denver Post, 21 Oct. 2025
This week, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Pam Bondi gave a master class in obfuscation, prevarication, and pettiness.
—John Ficarra, Air Mail, 11 Oct. 2025
Minaj leaned into her pettiness while taking shots at Kulture’s mom in her apology.
—Michael Saponara, Billboard, 3 Oct. 2025
The gesture’s lack of dignity, its childishness, its pettiness, are completely in character.
—Christopher Bonanos, Curbed, 25 Sep. 2025
Among their inspiring behaviors, these characters deserve to also express pettiness and selfishness, or, at the very least, more wit.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2025
That’s the kind of extreme pettiness that Row Z can firmly get behind.
—Tim Spiers, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2025
The American people are seeking solace and inspiration from its leaders, not pettiness and skullduggery.
—Chicago Tribune, 10 Aug. 2025
Troy Renck, Denver Post, 21 Oct. 2025
This week, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Pam Bondi gave a master class in obfuscation, prevarication, and pettiness.
—John Ficarra, Air Mail, 11 Oct. 2025
Minaj leaned into her pettiness while taking shots at Kulture’s mom in her apology.
—Michael Saponara, Billboard, 3 Oct. 2025
The gesture’s lack of dignity, its childishness, its pettiness, are completely in character.
—Christopher Bonanos, Curbed, 25 Sep. 2025
Among their inspiring behaviors, these characters deserve to also express pettiness and selfishness, or, at the very least, more wit.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2025
That’s the kind of extreme pettiness that Row Z can firmly get behind.
—Tim Spiers, New York Times, 19 Aug. 2025
The American people are seeking solace and inspiration from its leaders, not pettiness and skullduggery.
—Chicago Tribune, 10 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pettiness
Noun
-
That type of breaking is undisciplined indulgence that is normally meant to terrorize and threaten people and is driven by people who operate from a place of smallness, ego fragility, and fear of their own powerlessness.—
Brené Brown,
Fortune,
14 Oct. 2025
-
Identify every instance of victim language, limitation beliefs, or smallness thinking.—
Jodie Cook,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Her difficulty lay in her distance from the random violence of insignificance.—
Rachel Cusk,
New Yorker,
24 Aug. 2025
-
His groundbreaking work reveals how a hidden epidemic of insignificance is quietly eroding engagement, trust, and performance in organizations, and what leaders can do to reverse it.—
Rodger Dean Duncan,
Forbes.com,
8 July 2025
Noun
-
Who was this irritant who had eluded the most sophisticated lawmen in the country, thanks to the triviality of his crimes?—
David Grann,
New Yorker,
19 Oct. 2025
-
For Herzog, this simultaneous coexistence of high art and triviality is part of LA’s twisted genius.—
Nick Lichtenberg,
Fortune,
28 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pettiness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pettiness. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
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