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Minute vs Superficial - What's the difference?

minute | superficial |

As a verb minute

is .

As an adjective superficial is

shallow, lacking substance.

As a noun superficial is

(chiefly in plural) a surface detail.

minute

English

(wikipedia minute)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) minute, from

Noun

(en noun)
  • A unit of time equal to sixty seconds (one-sixtieth of an hour).
  • You have twenty minutes to complete the test.
  • A short but unspecified time period.
  • Wait a minute , I’m not ready yet!
  • A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a degree.
  • We need to be sure these maps are accurate to within one minute of arc.
  • (in the plural, minutes) A (usually formal) written record of a meeting.
  • Let’s look at the minutes of last week’s meeting.
  • A minute of use of a telephone or other network, especially a cell phone network.
  • If you buy this phone, you’ll get 100 free minutes .
  • A point in time; a moment.
  • * Dryden
  • I go this minute to attend the king.
  • 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
  • minutes and circumstances of his passion
  • (architecture) A fixed part of a module.
  • Derived terms
    * minute bell * minute book * minute glass * minute gun
    Synonyms
    * instant, jiffy, mo, moment, sec, second, tic * (unit of angular measure) minute of arc

    Verb

    (minut)
  • Of an event, to write in a memo or the minutes of a meeting.
  • I’ll minute this evening’s meeting.
  • * Charles Dickens
  • I dare say there was a vast amount of minuting , memoranduming, and dispatch-boxing, on this mighty subject.
  • * 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]
  • On 17 November 1949 Jay minuted Cripps, arguing that trade liberalization on inessentials was socially regressive.
  • * 1996, Peter Hinchliffe, The Other Battle [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=vxBK8kHLTyIC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&sig=lXg1Kvn_f1KsmB4gdOv51h5nu8I]
  • 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.’
  • * 2003, David Roberts, Four Against the Arctic [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=yPsgKV7zo_kC&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&sig=WNGXG6bM-ja8NDueqgtdNrCkslM]
  • 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.
  • To set down a short sketch or note of; to jot down; to make a minute or a brief summary of.
  • * Bancroft
  • The Empress of Russia, with her own hand, minuted an edict for universal tolerance.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • 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.}}
    Synonyms
    * (small) * infinitesimal, insignificant, minuscule, tiny, trace * See also * (exact) * exact, exacting, excruciating, precise, scrupulous * See also
    Antonyms
    * big, enormous, colossal, huge, significant, tremendous, vast

    superficial

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Shallow, lacking substance.
  • At face value.
  • *
  • Secondly, I continue to base my concepts on intensive study of a limited suite of collections, rather than superficial study of every packet that comes to hand.
  • Of or pertaining to the surface.
  • Being near the surface.
  • (rare) Two-dimensional; drawn on a flat surface.
  • Synonyms

    * (of or pertaining to the surface) surficial

    Antonyms

    * in-depth * thorough * (lacking substance) substantive

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (chiefly in plural) A surface detail.
  • He always concentrates on the superficials and fails to see the real issue.