anal-retentive

adjective

Definition of anal-retentivenext
as in stubborn
extremely or overly neat, careful, or precise My anal-retentive brother keeps records of everything that happens in his life.

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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 anal-retentive But there would be no grease-drinking, Judas-playing Sandy without his anal-retentive best friend, Reuben Feffer. — Sean Malin, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024 Conventional management practices suppress everything that isn’t vine by mowing, tilling, and spraying herbicide with an intensity that ranges from anal-retentive to paranoid. — Kevin West, Travel + Leisure, 24 July 2024 One might be forgiven for also thinking that the identification is not so much between the audience and the killer as between Fincher, who is known as something of a filmmaking fusspot, and his anal-retentive central character. — Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, 25 Oct. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for anal-retentive
  1. stubborn
  2. obsessive
  3. dogged
  4. strict
Adjective
  • Earlier, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller suggested that more interest rate rises may be needed to tackle stubborn inflation, which has stayed above the Fed's 2% target for more than five years.
    — Hugh Leask,Sean Conlon, CNBC, 9 Oct. 2026
  • The apparent disconnect between a recovery in oil supply and stubborn fuel prices has drawn attention from analysts.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of stubborn
Adjective
  • Generating scholarly tomes at a rate of more than one a year involves obsessive amounts of research.
    — Sean Timberlake, Sacbee.com, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Yet tailoring is also one of fashion’s great luxuries — an intimate, almost obsessive process of shaping cloth around the body.
    — Tyler Matthew Oyer, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of obsessive
Adjective
  • Fineman is set to play Parker Quinn, a sports reporter for a top publication who’s known as a dogged reporter with a passion for her beat.
    — Katie Kilkenny, HollywoodReporter, 20 July 2026
  • One of the hallmarks of the series is its dogged attention to detail, an aspect of storyboarding infinitely complicated by the non-linear nature of the episodes and the vast number of years Lestat’s life as a vampire spans.
    — CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 7 July 2026
Definition of dogged
Adjective
  • Swift intervention reversed their decline after Aldabra was designated a strict nature reserve in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1982.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 10 Oct. 2026
  • The great innovator of fashion photography, the revolutionary, was also a strict traditionalist.
    — Vince Aletti, New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of strict

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Cite this Entry

“Anal-retentive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/anal-retentive. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

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