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Wiktionary

minuscule

English

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Alternative forms

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  • miniscule (originally a misspelling, but now so common that it has come to be considered an alternative spelling by many)

Etymology

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From French minuscule, from Latin minuscula, feminine of minusculus (“rather less, rather small”), from minus (“less, smaller”) + -culus (diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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minuscule (countable and uncountable, plural minuscules)

  1. (countable) A lowercase letter.
  2. (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.
  3. (countable) A letter in these styles.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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minuscule (comparative more minuscule, superlative most minuscule)

  2. Written in minuscules, lowercase.
  3. Written in minuscule handwriting style.
  4. 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

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Antonyms

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Translations

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Usage notes

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See the usage notes at miniscule

References

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  1. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

French

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from Latin minusculus.

Adjective

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minuscule (plural minuscules)

  1. tiny, minute, minuscule
  2. (typography) lowercase

Etymology 2

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Ellipsis of lettre minuscule.

Noun

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minuscule f (plural minuscules)

  1. (typography) a minuscule, a lower case
    Antonym: majuscule

Further reading

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Latin

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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minuscule

  1. vocative masculine singular of minusculus

Romanian

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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minuscule

  1. feminine/neuter plural nominative/accusative of minuscul
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