as in slight
so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention
investors disappointed by stock dividends that were decidedly de minimis
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Recent Examples of de minimis
About 48% of de minimis packages were shipped to America’s poorest zip codes, while 22% were delivered to the richest ones, according to research in February from UCLA and Yale economists.
—
Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN Money, 17 Dec. 2025
Over the last decade, the number of de minimis international shipments claiming to be exempt from inspection surged from 140 million a year to 1 billion a year, the researchers found.
—Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 15 Dec. 2025
The administration also halted the de minimis rule, established in 1938, which had simplified imports by exempting small value shipments from duties and taxes.
—Roxana Popescu, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Oct. 2025
The profit outlook for this year was also cut, reflecting a $240 million hit the company will see from President Donald Trump’s trade war tariffs and the removal of the de minimis exemption.
—Evan Clark, Footwear News, 4 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for de minimis
Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN Money, 17 Dec. 2025
Over the last decade, the number of de minimis international shipments claiming to be exempt from inspection surged from 140 million a year to 1 billion a year, the researchers found.
—Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 15 Dec. 2025
The administration also halted the de minimis rule, established in 1938, which had simplified imports by exempting small value shipments from duties and taxes.
—Roxana Popescu, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Oct. 2025
The profit outlook for this year was also cut, reflecting a $240 million hit the company will see from President Donald Trump’s trade war tariffs and the removal of the de minimis exemption.
—Evan Clark, Footwear News, 4 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for de minimis
Recent Examples of Synonyms for de minimis
Adjective
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On Friday, there was only a slight danger of avalanches in Slovakia's highest mountain range.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
7 Feb. 2026
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Sateen weave bedding also tends to have a slight sheen with a drapey design, and an opulent feel right out of the package, Brenot points out.—
Yelena Moroz Alpert,
Architectural Digest,
7 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The source said the Heat were not willing to offload for nominal draft capital.—
Ira Winderman,
Sun Sentinel,
7 Feb. 2026
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Today, his brother Raúl Castro is 94, and Cuba’ s nominal president, Miguel Diaz-Canel, is an obscure bureaucrat who has a hard time keeping his audiences awake.—
Andres Oppenheimer,
Miami Herald,
5 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Johnson’s novella captured specific, sometimes seemingly insignificant, moments in the life of an ordinary logger named Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton), who died at 80.—
Chris O'Falt,
IndieWire,
6 Feb. 2026
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Among life’s great procrastinations, putting off making a will seems to top insignificant things like delaying cleaning the house or starting a homework assignment.—
Howard Cohen,
Miami Herald,
5 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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But Putin was not going to launch a new war against Turkey’s rebel allies just to save a petty dictator whose own soldiers were deserting.—
Robert F. Worth,
The Atlantic,
6 Feb. 2026
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Ruling like a petty tyrant from the company’s headquarters in lower Manhattan, Coplan isn’t an easy boss to work with, according to new reporting by the Wall Street Journal.—
Joe Wilkins Published Feb 4,
Futurism,
4 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Needless to say, this truly trivial little conundrum led me down a rabbit hole of laundry tips on Reddit.—
Patricia Shannon,
Southern Living,
1 Feb. 2026
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The cost of an independent study is trivial compared to the cost of emergency enforcement, retrofits, and reactive fixes once problems surface.—
Ed Gaskin,
Boston Herald,
31 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“De minimis.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/de%20minimis. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.
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