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Miniscule vs Minimum - What's the difference?

miniscule | minimum |

As an adjective miniscule

is (colloquial).

As a noun minimum is

minimum.

miniscule

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (colloquial)
  • Usage notes

    * “The correct spelling is minuscule' rather than ' miniscule . The latter is a common error, which has arisen by analogy with other words beginning with “mini”, where the meaning is similarly ‘very small’.” * At the time of writing (22 May 2012), the number of hits in the printed works listed in Google Books for minuscule' outnumbers those for ' miniscule by a large amount (by 1,990,000 to 422,000, a ratio of roughly 5:1). In contrast, the numbers of hits on Google (with language set to English) are 13,000,000 to 10,900,000, a ratio of about 6:5. English misspellings

    minimum

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • The lowest limit.
  • We prefer candidates with a minimum of 4 years experience in the field.
    We need a minimum of 3 fully-qualified staff members on duty at all time.
  • The smallest amount.
  • He always tries to get away with doing the minimum .
    Please keep noise to a minimum after 11 o'clock
  • (astronomy) A period of minimum brightness or energy intensity (of a star).
  • (analysis) A lower bound of a set which is also an element of that set.
  • (statistics) The smallest member of a batch or sample or the lower bound of a probability distribution.
  • Usage notes

    * (term) is more common plural for the technical senses.

    Antonyms

    * maximum

    Hypernyms

    * (statistics) measure of location

    Derived terms

    (terms derived from minimum) * bare minimum * global minimum * local minimum * Maunder minimum * minimum wage * moral minimum

    Adjective

    (-)
  • To the lowest degree.