Diminutive meaning

dĭ-mĭn'yə-tĭv
Of or being a suffix that indicates smallness or, by semantic extension, qualities such as youth, familiarity, affection, or contempt, as -let in booklet, -kin in lambkin, or -et in nymphet.
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The definition of diminutive is small or tiny.

An example of diminutive is the size of Santa's elves.

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Extremely or extraordinarily small.
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A diminutive suffix, word, or name.
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A very small person or thing.
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Much smaller than ordinary or average; very small; tiny.
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Expressing smallness or diminution.

A diminutive suffix or name.

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A very small person or thing.
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Very small.
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Serving to diminish.
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(grammar) Of or pertaining to, or creating a word form expressing smallness, youth, unimportance, or endearment.
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(grammar) A word form expressing smallness, youth, unimportance, or endearment.

Booklet, the diminutive of book, means ‘small book’.

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Origin of diminutive

  • Middle English diminutif from Old French from Latin dīminūtīvus from dīminūtus past participle of dīminuere diminish
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • From Middle French diminutif (1398), from Latin diminutivum, from deminuere (“diminish”).
    From Wiktionary

Diminutive Sentence Examples

  • The word is a diminutive from Eibos, and is supposed to mean " little poems."

  • musculus, diminutive of mus, mouse, applied to small sea fish and mussels), a term applied in England to two families of Lamellibranch Molluscs - the marine Mytilacea, of which the edible mussel, Mytilus edulis, is the representative; and the fresh-water Unionidae, of which the river mussel, Unio pictorum, and the swan mussel, Anodonta cygnea, are the common British examples.

  • "Stripling," a youth, is apparently a diminutive of "strip," in the sense of a.

  • In_ the very crisis of the Swedish War, the diminutive army of the victorious Chodkiewicz was left unpaid, with the result that the soldiers mutinied, and marched off en masse.

  • ANOA, the native name of the small wild buffalo of Celebes, Bos (Bubalus) depressicornis, which stands but little over a yard at the shoulder, and is the most diminutive of all wild cattle.

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Words near diminutive in the Dictionary