Standard Lemma guide

picayune

adj · noun · 7 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: ʹpĭk'ə'yo͝on
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˌpɪkəˈjuːn/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˌpɪkəˈjun/
  • General-American: /-ki-/
  • rhymes with -uːn
  • CMU ARPABET: P IH2 K IY0 Y UW1 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of little consequence; small and of little importance; petty, trivial.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: picayunish, base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile, frivolous, idle, ignorable, immaterial, inconsequential, inconsiderable, indifferent, insignificant, like a fart in a windstorm, meager, mean, minor, miserable, negligible, nothingburger, nondescript, null, paltry, petty, picayune, piddling, piddly, pissant, pissass, piteous, pitiful, pointless, silly, simple, slight, ticky-tacky, tin-pot, trifling, trivial, two-bit, unimportant, unweighty, vain, worthless, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Childishly spiteful; tending to go on about unimportant things; small-minded.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: peevish, petty

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

A small coin of the value of six-and-a-quarter cents; a Spanish coin with a value of half a real; a fippenny bit.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Louisiana, US, especially, historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A coin worth five cents (a nickel) or some other low value.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, archaic, broadly

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A person regarded as unworthy of respect or useless; also, something of very little value; a trifle.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, figuratively, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: absolute zero, also-ran, chopped liver, cipher, crumb, Joe Nobody, little guy, minnow, nebbish, nobody, no one, nothing, nothingburger, nonentity, picayune, pip-squeak, pleb, peon, prole, puny, quidam, rinky-dink, shrimp, wankstain, zero, zilch, bagatelle, bag of shells, bric-a-brac, dicky, dicky-bird, fico, fig, flamfew, flyspeck, minuity, niff-naff, scuddick, sop, ticky-tack, toy, trick, trifle, triviality, whiffle, white chip

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

An argument, fact, or other issue raised (often intentionally) that distracts from a larger issue or fails to make any difference.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, figuratively, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

adjective satellite

Meaning 7

(informal) small and of little importance

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a fiddling sum of money
  • a footling gesture
  • our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war
  • a little (or small) matter
  • a dispute over niggling details
  • limited to petty enterprises
  • piffling efforts
  • giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fiddling, footling, lilliputian, little, niggling, piddling, piffling, petty, trivial

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from southern French picaillon, pécaillon, picayon (“type of small foreign coin; (informal, especially in the plural) cash, money”), and from its etymon Occitan picalhon, picaioun (“cheaply made Savoyan-Piedmontese coin that was rapidly demonetized; (by extension) cash, money”), probably from Occitan piquar (“to ring (bells); to knock, strike”) (referring to the clinking of coins in a pocket), originally imitative. The adjective is derived from the noun.