- miniscule(originally a misspelling, but now so common that it has come to be considered an alternative spelling by many)
FromFrenchminuscule, fromLatinminuscula, feminine ofminusculus(“rather less, rather small”), fromminus(“less, smaller”) +-culus(diminutive suffix).
minuscule (countable anduncountable,pluralminuscules)
- (countable) Alowercase letter.
- (uncountable) Either of the twomedievalhandwriting stylesminuscule cursive andCaroline minuscule.
2001,Steven Roger Fischer,History of Writing,Reaktion Books,→ISBN, page254:By the eighth century, Irish scribes had refined everyday cursive writing inminuscule to allow its use for the production of quality vellum books.
- (countable) A letter in these styles.
lower-case letter
- Arabic:حَرْف صَغِير m(ḥarf ṣaḡīr)
- Armenian:փոքրատառ (hy)(pʻokʻrataṙ)
- Belarusian:мала́я лі́тара f(malája lítara),мала́я бу́ква f(malája búkva)
- Bulgarian:ма́лка бу́ква f(málka búkva)
- Catalan:minúscula (ca) f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin:小寫字母 /小写字母 (zh)(ziǎoxiězìmǔ)
- Czech:minuskule (cs) f,malé písmeno n
- Danish:lille bogstav n
- Dutch:minuskel (nl) m,kleine letter f
- Esperanto:minusklo
- Finnish:pienaakkonen (fi),pienikirjain,minuskeli (fi)
- French:minuscule (fr) f
- Georgian:ნუსხური ასო(nusxuri aso)
- German:Kleinbuchstabe (de) m,Gemeinbuchstabe m,Gemeiner m(derGemeine)
- Greek:μικρό γράμμα n(mikró grámma),πεζό γράμμα n(pezó grámma)
- Hungarian:kisbetű (hu),minuszkula
- Ido:minuskulo (io)
- Italian:minuscolo (it) m
- Japanese:小文字 (ja)(こもじ, komoji)
- Korean:소문자(小文字) (ko)(somunja)
- Macedonian:мала буква f(mala bukva)
- Manx:lettyr beg m
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål:minuskel (no) m,gemen (no) m,liten bokstav m
- Nynorsk:minuskel m,gemen m,liten bokstav m
- Polish:minuskuła (pl) f,mała litera (pl) f
- Portuguese:minúscula (pt) f
- Romanian:minusculă (ro) f,literă mică (ro) f
- Russian:строчна́я бу́ква (ru) f(stročnája búkva),ма́ленькая бу́ква f(málenʹkaja búkva)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic:мало слово n
- Roman:malo slovo n
- Slovak:malé písmeno n
- Slovene:mala začetnica f
- Spanish:minúscula (es) f
- Swedish:gemen (sv) c,liten bokstav (sv) c
- Ukrainian:мала́ лі́тера f(malá lítera),мала́ бу́ква f(malá búkva)
- Uzbek:kichik harf
- Vietnamese:chữ nhỏ,chữ thường
- Volapük:minud (vo)
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medieval handwriting style
minuscule (comparativemoreminuscule,superlativemostminuscule)
- Written in minuscules,lowercase.
- Written in minuscule handwriting style.
- Verysmall;tiny.
- Synonym:minuscular
aminuscule dot
2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, inThe Economist[1], volume407, number8837, page74: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 aminuscule 0.01%.
written in minuscule handwriting style
See the usage notes atminiscule
Borrowed fromLatinminusculus.
minuscule (pluralminuscules)
- tiny,minute,minuscule
- (typography)lowercase
Ellipsis oflettre minuscule.
minuscule f (pluralminuscules)
- (typography) aminuscule, alower case
- Antonym:majuscule
minuscule
- vocativemasculinesingular ofminusculus
minuscule
- feminine/neuterpluralnominative/accusative ofminuscul
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, launched 2000.