angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin

A form of angels dancing on the head of a pin — The subject of arcane intellectual speculation—used as an example of a subject of enquiry in which the pursuit is of no value.

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Meanings

adjective
  1. adjectivalattributiveAdjectival or attributive form of angels dancing on the head of a pin.

    If that isn’t an angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin question, what would be?

    1998, Daniel Clement Dennett, Brainchildren: Essays on Designing Minds, 1984–1996, page 75
    2 more examples

    And also, many of the problems I’d had with what seemed to me to be — I don’t know what you’d call it — the angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin aspect…

    1995, David Murray Schneider, Richard Handler, Schneider on Schneider — CL: the conversion of the Jews and other anthropological stories, page 201

    Finally, there was an angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin argument about whether Dr Kelly worked “in” the MoD or “for” the MoD.

    2003, Simon Hoggart, The Guardian Unlimited: QC floats like a butterfly, stings like IDS
Cite this entry
APA

angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin

MLA

“angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin.

Source: angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.