minuscule
English
Alternative forms
- miniscule (originally a misspelling, but now so common that it has come to be considered an alternative spelling by many)
Etymology
From French minuscule, from Latin minuscula, feminine of minusculus (“rather less, rather small”), from minus (“less, smaller”) + -culus (diminutive suffix).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, UK) IPA(key): /ˈmɪn.ʊˌskjuːl/, /ˈmɪn.jʊˌskjuːl/[1]
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (US) IPA(key): /ˈmɪn.əˌskjul/, /mɪˈnʌsˌkjul/
Noun
minuscule (countable and uncountable, plural minuscules)
- (countable) A lowercase letter.
- (uncountable) Either of the two medieval handwriting styles minuscule cursive and Caroline minuscule.
- 2001, Steven Roger Fischer, History of Writing, Reaktion Books, →ISBN, page 254:
- By the eighth century, Irish scribes had refined everyday cursive writing in minuscule to allow its use for the production of quality vellum books.
- (countable) A letter in these styles.
Derived terms
Translations
lower-case letter
|
medieval handwriting style
|
Adjective
minuscule (comparative more minuscule, superlative most minuscule)
- Written in minuscules, lowercase.
- Written in minuscule handwriting style.
- Very small; tiny.
- a minuscule dot
- 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist[1], volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
- In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%.
Synonyms
- (written in minuscules): lower-case, small
- (very small): microscopic; minute; tiny
- See also Thesaurus:tiny
Antonyms
Translations
written in minuscules
written in minuscule handwriting style
very small, tiny
|
Usage notes
See the usage notes at miniscule
References
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
French
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Latin minusculus.
Adjective
minuscule (plural minuscules)
Etymology 2
Noun
minuscule f (plural minuscules)
- (typography) a minuscule, a lower case
- Antonym: majuscule
Further reading
- “minuscule”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /miˈnus.ku.le/, [mɪˈnʊs̠kʊɫ̪ɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /miˈnus.ku.le/, [miˈnuskule]
Adjective
minuscule
Romanian
Pronunciation
Adjective
minuscule
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *mey- (small)
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
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- en:Orthography
- French 3-syllable words
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- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
- fr:Typography
- French ellipses
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- fr:Orthography
- Latin 4-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
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- Romanian terms with IPA pronunciation
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