noun
- the sixtieth part of any of certain units; specif.,
- of an hour; sixty seconds
- of a degree of an arc; sixty seconds: symbol, ′
- a very short period of time; moment; instant
- a specific point in time
- a measure of the distance usually covered in a minute: five minutes from downtown
- a note or memorandum
- an official record of what was said and done at a meeting, convention, etc.
Origin:
OFr < ML minuta < L (pars) minuta (prima), (first) small (part), term used by Ptolemy for the sixtieth part of a unit in his system of fractions (of the circle, radius, day, later applied also to the hour): see minute
transitive verb minuted, minuting
- to time to the minute
- to make a minute, or memorandum, of; record
- to put in the minutes of a meeting, etc.