menial

1 of 2

noun

me·nial ˈmē-nē-əl

-nyəl

Synonyms of menial next

: a person doing menial work

specifically : a domestic (see domestic entry 1 sense 4) servant or retainer (see retainer entry 1 sense 1a)

menial

2 of 2

adjective

: of or relating to servants : lowly

a menial worker

: appropriate to a servant : humble, servile

answered in menial tones

menial household chores

: lacking interest or dignity

a menial task

menially adverb

Examples of menial in a Sentence

Noun immigrants to that country faced fierce prejudice and could expect to find work only as menials Adjective every command was obeyed in the menial manner of someone who seemed grateful just to be in the presence of a celebrity

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Despite the national security risk articulated by politicians and federal law enforcement officials, some users see the risk as menial compared to other social media platforms. —

Peter Charalambous, ABC News, 25 Apr. 2023 Introducing artificial intelligence into your business can help you to minimize the menial. —

Expert Panel®, Forbes, 1 June 2022 For Angel, that means figuring out how to survive as a woman who doesn’t want to lead a menial, humdrum life. —

Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr. 2022 And yet, the marketplace depends on their willingness to do menial, backbreaking labor for less than minimum wage and without benefits. —

Carlos Alberto Sánchez, SFChronicle.com, 27 Oct. 2020

Adjective

While incarcerated, children must ask staff permission to perform menial tasks such as flushing a toilet, the ACLU alleges. —

Justin Klawans, The Week, 2 July 2023 The vast majority are unskilled, unemployed, menial work type people. —

Alaa Elassar, CNN, 24 July 2023 After college came a string of menial jobs: in a record store; in a grocery store; the graveyard shift at a gas station. —

Patrick Radden Keefe, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023 By the 1930s, for example, many members of the largest menial caste in India’s Punjab region had converted to Protestant Christianity. —

Myriam Renaud, The Conversation, 5 July 2023 Voight, a 45-year-old German immigrant living in Los Angeles, had understandably grown tired of traveling from place to place, grinding at menial jobs to support himself. —

David Reamer | Alaska History, Anchorage Daily News, 9 July 2023 Chipotle is tackling that challenge, in part, with a bold move: automating some of the more menial work in its kitchens to make its jobs more attractive. —

Phil Wahba, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2023 Kaufmann’s was slow to hire blacks beyond menial positions). —

Daniel Akst, WSJ, 6 Nov. 2022 After Johnson returned from his 13-game absence because of his quad injury in their April 1 loss at Memphis, the Suns' sixth man and best three-point shooter (42.5% per game) is still trying to find his rhythm after posting a menial 15.3% from the 3 through their final six games (15.3%). —

Dana Scott, The Arizona Republic, 17 Apr. 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'menial.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Adjective and Noun

Middle English meynial, from Anglo-French meignal, from mesnee, mayné household, retinue, from Vulgar Latin *mansionata, from Latin mansion-, mansio dwelling — more at mansion

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of menial was in the 14th century

See more words from the same century