little

1 having relatively little height there was a little hedge separating the two lawns Synonyms short, low, low-lying, low-slung, sawed-offRelated Words dwarf, dwarfish; compact, petite, slight; diminutive, half-pint, pint-size (or pint-sized), pocket, pocket-size (also pocket-sized), pygmy, small, smallish; bantam, bitty, dinky, mini, miniature, minimized, minute, puny, teeny, teeny-weeny, tiny, undersized (also undersize), wee; dumpy, flat, scrubby, squat, squatty, stubby, stumpy, stuntedNear Antonyms elevated, lifted, raised, uplifted, upswept; high-rise, statuesque; gangling, gangly, lanky, rangy; big, bulky, hefty, hulking, large, largish, outsize (also outsized), oversize (or oversized), sizable (or sizeable), voluminousAntonyms altitudinous, high, lofty, tall, towering

2 lacking importance there were just a few little details left to take care of Synonyms fiddling, foolish, frivolous, incidental, inconsequential, inconsiderable, insignificant, unimportant, Mickey Mouse, minor, minute, negligible, nugatory, slight, small, small-fry, trifling, trivialRelated Words jerkwater, one-horse; nickel-and-dime, paltry, petty, small-time, worthless; anonymous, nameless, obscure, uncelebrated, unknownNear Antonyms decisive, fatal, fateful; chief, dominant, overbearing, overmastering, overriding, principal; distinctive, exceptional, impressive, outstanding, prominent, remarkable; valuable, worthwhile, worthy; distinguished, eminent, great, illustrious, preeminent, prestigious; famous, notorious, renowned; all-important, basic, essential, fundamental, keyAntonyms big, consequential, eventful, important, major, material, meaningful, momentous, significant, substantial, unfrivolous, weighty

3 not broad or open in views or opinions little-minded people who dislike the fact that human society is always progressing Synonyms illiberal, insular, Lilliputian, narrow, narrow-minded, parochial, petty, picayune, provincial, sectarian, small, small-mindedRelated Words inflexible, ironbound, obdurate, obstinate, rigid, set, stubborn, unyielding, wrongheaded; bigoted, intolerant; biased, discriminating, discriminatory, jaundiced, one-sided, partial, partisan, prejudiced; brass bound, hidebound, old-fashioned, reactionary, stodgy, straitlaced (or straightlaced), stuffy; dogmatic (also dogmatical), opinionated, opinionative; limited; hick, unsophisticatedNear Antonyms impartial, nonpartisan, objective, unbiased, unprejudiced; freethinkingAntonyms broad-minded, catholic, cosmopolitan, liberal, open, open-minded, receptive, tolerant

4 not lasting for a considerable time let's take a little pause to relax Synonyms brief, fast, shortRelated Words shortish; abbreviated, abridged, curtailed, cut-back, shortened, syncopated; compact, condensed; abrupt, sudden; ephemeral, fleeting, momentary, short-lived, transient, transitory; impermanent; compendious, concise, crisp, epigrammatic, laconic, pithy, succinct, summary, terse; short-range, short-termNear Antonyms endless, everlasting, interminable, persistent, unending; longish, overlong, prolonged, protracted; permanent; enlarged, expanded, supplemented; long-range, long-termAntonyms extended, far, great, lengthy, long, long-drawn-out (or long-drawn), long-lived

5 of a size that is less than average the petting zoo has a little horse in addition to all of the goats and sheep Synonyms bantam, diminutive, dinky, dwarfish, fine, half-pint, Lilliputian, small, pint-size (or pint-sized), pocket, pocket-size (also pocket-sized), puny, pygmy, shrimpy, slight, smallish, subnormal, toylike, undersized (also undersize)Related Words dwarf, toy; runtish, runty, scrubby, stunted; bitty, inappreciable, infinitesimal, little bitty, micro, microscopic (also microscopical), mini, miniature, miniaturized, minikin, minim, minuscule, minute, pinpoint, teensy, teensy-weensy, teeny, teeny-weeny, tiny, wee, weeny (also weensy); meager (or meagre), niggardly, poor, scant, scanty, scarce, skimp, skimpy, slender, slim, spare, sparse, stingy; deficient, inadequate, insufficient, lacking, wanting; bite-size (also bite-sized), capsuleNear Antonyms bulky, hefty, hulking, massive, voluminous; boxcar, Brobdingnagian, Bunyanesque, cavernous, colossal, cyclopean, elephantine, enormous, galactic, gargantuan, giant, gigantic, gross, Himalayan, herculean, heroic (also heroical), huge, humongous (also humungous), immense, jumbo, leviathan, mammoth, monolithic, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, pharaonic, prodigious, staggering, stupendous, titanic, tremendous, vast; abundant, ample, appreciable, bountiful, copious, generous, healthy, liberal, plenteous, plentiful; fat, thick; broad, wide; boundless, cosmic (also cosmical), immeasurable, incalculable, infinite; adequate, enough, sufficientAntonyms big, biggish, considerable, goodly, grand, great, handsome, husky, king-size (or king-sized), large, largish, outsize (also outsized), overscale (or overscaled), oversize (or oversized), sizable (or sizeable), substantial, tidy, whacking, whopping

1 in a very small quantity or degree we had little more than we needed to survive in the wilderness Synonyms negligibly, nominally, slightly Related Words meagerly, scantily; barely, hardly, just, marginally, minimally, scarcely Phrases a bit, a trifle Near Antonyms completely, entirely, purely, thoroughly, totally, utterly; eminently, exceptionally; appreciably, discernibly, noticeably, palpably; abundantly, plentifully; generously, handsomely, liberally; astronomically, grandly, hugely, monstrously, monumentally Antonyms awful, awfully, beastly, considerably, deadly, especially, exceedingly (also exceeding), extensively, extra, extremely, far, frightfully, full, greatly, heavily, highly, jolly, mightily, mighty, mortally, most, much, particularly, rattling, real, right, significantly, so, something, substantially, super, terribly, too, very, whacking

2 not often he's been studying very little for the bar exam Synonyms infrequently, seldom, rarelyRelated Words ne'er, never; episodically, irregularly, now and then, occasionally, sometimes, sporadicallyNear Antonyms customarily, generally, habitually, ordinarily, routinely, usually; always, constantly, continually, continuously, endlessly, eternally, ever, everlastingly, evermore, forever, invariably, perennially, perpetually, unceasingly; chronically, recurrently, repeatedlyAntonyms frequently, oft, often, oftentimes (or ofttimes)

a very small amount there's just a little of the pie left Synonyms ace, bit, crumb, dab, dram, driblet, glimmer, hint, lick, particle, mite, nip, ounce, peanuts, ray, scintilla, scruple, shade, shadow, shred, skosh, smack, smell, smidgen (also smidgeon or smidgin or smidge), snap, soupçon, spark, spatter, speck, splash, spot, sprinkling, strain, streak, suspicion, tad, touch, traceRelated Words hoot, iota, jot, minim, minimum, modicum, semblance, syllable, tittle, vestige, whit; atom, dot, fleck, flyspeck, grain, granule, molecule, morsel, mote, nubbin, patch, scrap; dash, drop, pinch; part, portion, section; bite, nibble, taste; handful, scattering, smatter, smattering; dose, shot; chip, flake, fragment, shard, shiver, sliver, smithereens, splinter; shred, tatter; clipping, paring, shavingNear Antonyms abundance, barrel, boatload, bucket, bundle, bushel, deal, fistful, gobs, heaps, lashings (also lashins) [chiefly British], loads, lot, mass, mess, mountain, much, oodles, passel, peck, pile, plenty, potful, profusion, quantity, raft, reams, scads, stack, wad, wealth; volume; bonanza, embarrassment, excess, overabundance, overage, overflow, overkill, overmuch, oversupply, superabundance, superfluity, surfeit, surplus; chunk, hunk, lump, slab