minuscule

English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪn.ʊˌskjuːl/, /ˈmɪn.jʊˌskjuːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪn.əˌskjul/, /mɪˈnʌsˌkjul/

Noun

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

• Carolingian minuscule

Translations

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), pieni kirjain, minuskeli (fi)
• French: minuscule (fr) f
• Georgian: ნუსხური ასო (nusxuri aso)
• German: Kleinbuchstabe (de) m, Gemeinbuchstabe m, Gemeiner m (der Gemeine)
• Greek: μικρό γράμμα n (mikró grámma), πεζό γράμμα n (pezó grámma)
• Hungarian: kisbetű (hu)
• 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)

medieval handwriting style

• German: Minuskel (de)
• Hungarian: minuszkula
• Russian: мину́скул (ru) m (minúskul)

letter in this style

• Russian: мину́скул (ru) m (minúskul)

Adjective

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

• (written in minuscules): lower-case, small
• (very small): microscopic; minute; tiny
• See also Thesaurus:tiny

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “lower-case”): majuscule, uppercase

Translations

written in minuscules

• Finnish: pienin kirjaimin kirjoitettu
• French: minuscule (fr)
• German: Klein-
• Portuguese: minúsculo (pt)
• Spanish: minúscula (es) f
• Volapük: minudik

written in minuscule handwriting style

very small, tiny

• Bulgarian: мъничък (bg) (mǎničǎk)
• Catalan: minúscul (ca)
• Czech: drobný (cs) m, nepatrný (cs) m, malinký (cs) m
• Esperanto: malgrandega
• Finnish: mitätön (fi), olematon (fi)
• French: minuscule (fr)
• German: (colloquial) klitzeklein (de), winzig (de)
• Italian: minuscolo (it)
• Japanese: 矮小 (ja) (waishou)
• Portuguese: minúsculo (pt)
• Spanish: minúsculo (es)
• Swedish: jätteliten (sv) (colloquial), pytteliten (sv) (colloquial)
• Volapük: vemo smalik

Usage notes

See the usage notes at miniscule

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mi.nys.kyl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin minusculus.

Adjective

minuscule (plural minuscules)

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

Etymology 2

Ellipsis of lettre minuscule.

Noun

minuscule f (plural minuscules)

1. (typography) a minuscule, a lower case

   Antonym: majuscule

Further reading

• “minuscule”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /miˈnus.ku.le/, [mɪˈnʊs̠kʊɫ̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /miˈnus.ku.le/, [miˈnuskule]

Adjective

minuscule

1. vocative masculine singular of minusculus

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [miˈnus.ku.le]

Adjective

minuscule

1. feminine/neuter plural nominative/accusative of minuscul