/ˈsplɪt ˈhɛəz/
English idiom, everyday. To argue about tiny details that don’t matter.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use Split hairs
?
Used about arguments, contracts and rules, usually as a complaint about someone else (“you’re splitting hairs”) or as a way to wave a detail aside (“let’s not split hairs”). The noun is “hair-splitting”. It’s neutral enough for work emails as well as the kitchen table.
Split hairs
in real sentences
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Let’s not split hairs.
Tatoeba, sentence by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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My brother is constantly splitting hairs, so he’d make a great lawyer.
Tatoeba, sentence by acell, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Split hairs
come from?
English Wiktionary has no etymology for it and flags the gap with a request for one. The picture explains itself: a single hair is already about as thin as anything gets, so splitting it lengthwise is fussy work with no useful result. Wikipedia lists “hair-splitting” as one of the names for the trivial-objections fallacy, where small objections are used to dodge the main point.
Mistakes learners make with Split hairs
Writing “split hair” in the singular or swapping the verb (“cut hairs”). The fixed form is “split hairs”, always plural.
Other English idioms like Split hairs
Spot a mistake in Split hairs
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.