diminished

adjective di·min·ished

Updated on: 13 Apr 2018

Definition of diminished

of a musical interval

: made one half step less than perfect or minor

a diminished fifth

Recent Examples of diminished from the Web

Congress eventually codified the disparate-impact test for employment in the Civil Rights Act of 1991, reaffirming its diminished lawmaking power by rubber-stamping decisions made decades earlier by the executive and judicial branches.

— peter j. wallison, WSJ, "Judges Can Check the Administrative State," 5 Apr. 2018
The underlying infertility diagnosis plays a role (such as a diminished ovarian reserve), as does your age.

— korin miller, SELF, "Chrissy Teigen Says It Was ‘Devastating’ When Her First IVF Round Didn’t Work," 5 Apr. 2018
This would be the first-round foe Heat fans would most prefer for the LeBron factor, but the Cavs have played like a diminished giant all season.

— greg cote, miamiherald, "Of the four teams the Heat might face in the playoffs, fans should hope it isn’t this one | Miami Herald," 5 Apr. 2018
Meantime, civil rights groups cite a greater harm to the political rights of minority groups if a citizenship question on the decennial census form dissuades immigrants from participating, resulting in diminished representation in the U.S. House.

— CBS News, "Fact check: Trump's White House stretches truth on Census changes, AP finds," 29 Mar. 2018
Neither women nor men want to feel diminished or degraded by the aggression of somebody else.

— recode staff, Recode, "Full transcript: Author and psychotherapist Esther Perel on Recode Decode," 26 Mar. 2018
Along with the diminished street performance of the off-road rubber, the Rebel’s other main trade-offs lie in its interior.

— mike sutton, Car and Driver, "2019 Ram 1500 Rebel," 22 Mar. 2018
Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor, who has been responsible for advancing the initiative, and who was stripped of his security clearance last week, will attend the Monday summit in a diminished capacity.

— noga tarnopolsky, latimes.com, "Netanyahu begins visit to U.S., putting aside personal and political troubles at home," 5 Mar. 2018
Flows are following diminished performance: The S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats index dropped 3.8 percent in February, on track for the biggest monthly loss since October 2016, compared to a 2.6 percent retreat for the S&P 500.

— Bloomberg.com, "Fed Chair Jerome Powell Testifies to Congress," 28 Feb. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'diminished.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.