Few vs Minute - What's the difference?
few | minute |
(preceded by another determiner) An indefinite, but usually small, number of.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (used alone) Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of.
(meteorology, of clouds) (US?) Obscuring one eighth to two eighths of the sky.
(meteorology, of rainfall with regard to a location) (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.
A unit of time equal to sixty seconds (one-sixtieth of an hour).
A short but unspecified time period.
A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a degree.
(in the plural, minutes) A (usually formal) written record of a meeting.
A minute of use of a telephone or other network, especially a cell phone network.
A point in time; a moment.
* Dryden
A nautical or a geographic mile.
An old coin, a half farthing.
(obsolete) A very small part of anything, or anything very small; a jot; a whit.
* Jeremy Taylor
(architecture) A fixed part of a module.
Of an event, to write in a memo or the minutes of a meeting.
* Charles Dickens
* 1995, Edmund Dell, The Schuman Plan and the British Abdication of Leadership in Europe [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=us6DpQrcaVEC&pg=PA74&lpg=PA74&sig=8WYGZFKFxIhE4WPCpVkzDvHpO1A]
* 1996, Peter Hinchliffe, The Other Battle [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=vxBK8kHLTyIC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&sig=lXg1Kvn_f1KsmB4gdOv51h5nu8I]
* 2003, David Roberts, Four Against the Arctic [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=yPsgKV7zo_kC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&sig=WNGXG6bM-ja8NDueqgtdNrCkslM]
To set down a short sketch or note of; to jot down; to make a minute or a brief summary of.
* Bancroft
Very small.
Very careful and exact, giving small details.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=[http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/fenella-saunders Fenella Saunders], magazine=(American Scientist)
, title=[http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2013/4/tiny-lenses-see-the-big-picture Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture]
, passage=The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.}}
As a proper noun few
is (british) the pilots who fought in the battle of britain.As a verb minute is
.few
English
Determiner
A new prescription, passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}
- I was expecting lots of people at the party, but very few''''' (=''almost none'') ''turned up. Quite a '''few''' of them'' (=''many of them'') ''were pleasantly surprised. I don't know how many drinks I've had, but I've had a '''few . [This usage is likely ironic.]
- NOAA definition of the term "few clouds": An official sky cover classification for aviation weather observations, descriptive of a sky cover of 1/8 to 2/8. This is applied only when obscuring phenomenon aloft are present--that is, not when obscuring phenomenon are surface-based, such as fog.
Usage notes
* (term) is used with plural nouns only; its synonymous counterpart (little) is used with nouns. * Although indefinite in nature, a few is usually more than two (two often being referred to as "a couple of"), and less than "several". If the sample population is say between 5 and 20, a few would mean three or four, but no more than this. However, if the population sample size were in the millions, "a few" could refer to several hundred items. In other words, few'' in this context means ''a very very small percentage but way over the 3 or 4 usually ascribed to it its use with much much smaller numbers. : (term) is grammatically affirmative but semantically negative, and it can license negative polarity items. For example, lift a finger usually cannot be used in affirmative sentences, but can be used in sentences with (term). *: He didn't lift a finger to help us. *: *He lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical) *: Few people lifted a finger to help us. *: *A few people lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical) *: *Fewer people lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical)Synonyms
* little (see usage)Antonyms
* manyDerived terms
* a few * quite a fewAntonyms
* manyReferences
* Meteorology (both senses) *:NOAA Glossary: f
minute
English
(wikipedia minute)Etymology 1
From (etyl) minute, fromNoun
(en noun)- You have twenty minutes to complete the test.
- Wait a minute , I’m not ready yet!
- We need to be sure these maps are accurate to within one minute of arc.
- Let’s look at the minutes of last week’s meeting.
- If you buy this phone, you’ll get 100 free minutes .
- I go this minute to attend the king.
- minutes and circumstances of his passion
Derived terms
* minute bell * minute book * minute glass * minute gunSynonyms
* instant, jiffy, mo, moment, sec, second, tic * (unit of angular measure) minute of arcVerb
(minut)- I’ll minute this evening’s meeting.
- I dare say there was a vast amount of minuting , memoranduming, and dispatch-boxing, on this mighty subject.
- On 17 November 1949 Jay minuted Cripps, arguing that trade liberalization on inessentials was socially regressive.
- The Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, Sir Richard Peirse, was sceptical of its findings, minuting, ‘I don’t think at this rate we could have hoped to produce the damage which is known to have been achieved.’
- Mr. Klingstadt, chief Auditor of the Admiralty of that city, sent for and examined them very particularly concerning the events which had befallen them; minuting down their answers in writing, with an intention of publishing himself an account of their extraordinary adventures.
- The Empress of Russia, with her own hand, minuted an edict for universal tolerance.
