diminutive

How to use diminutive in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for diminutive.

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Editorial note

Actually, it is a diminutive for "mosco", which comes from "mosca".

Examples9

Definitions2

Parts of speech2

Quick take

a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness

Meaning at a glance

The clearest senses and uses of diminutive gathered in one view.

noun

a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness

adjective

very small; "diminutive in stature"; "a lilliputian chest of drawers"; "her petite figure"; "tiny feet"; "the flyspeck nation of Bahrain moved toward democracy"

Definitions

Core meanings and parts of speech for diminutive.

noun

a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness

adjective

very small; "diminutive in stature"; "a lilliputian chest of drawers"; "her petite figure"; "tiny feet"; "the flyspeck nation of Bahrain moved toward democracy"

See also: bantam, lilliputian, midget, petite, tiny, flyspeck

Example sentences

Actually, it is a diminutive for "mosco", which comes from "mosca".

"hon" also is an informal diminutive for "honey".

Calling a 20-something a 'girl' might be viewed offensively as diminutive.

'... merely a successful small business' as a diminutive to 37Signals?

"USAian" reads to me as someone who, under the guise of disambiguation, is intentionally being diminutive.

I've talked about this a lot with my women friends and in 2014 consistent complaints I hear are people using diminutive or sexist language towards women in professional contexts.

Possibly from Old English derogatory term bddel and its diminutive bdling "effeminate man, hermaphrodite, pederast"

"On a tangential note: just the other day I was having a conversation with a friend who felt that "phone" was an inaccurate and perhaps inappropriately diminutive term for the pocket computers that so many people carry now.

Let him take a mite which in its minute body presents him with parts incomparably more minute; limbs with their joints, veins in the limbs, blood in the veins, humours in the blood, drops in the humours, vapours in the drops; let him, again dividing these last, exhaust his power of thought; let the last point at which he arrives be that of which we speak, and he will perhaps think that here is the extremest diminutive in nature.