PETTY Synonyms: 117 Similar and Opposite Words

petty

adjective

ˈpe-tē

Definition of petty

as in small

not broad or open in views or opinions a petty little town that was not ethnically diverse and very happy about the situation

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in nominal

so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention obsessed over even petty problems

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of petty Some fans and analysts pointed out that the news release looked petty. — Daniel Sperry, Kansas City Star, 9 Sep. 2026 The film depicts the world’s richest man as petty, narcissistic, megalomaniacal, cruel, detached from humans at a personal level (including various ex-partners and many of his children) while purporting to want to save humanity by colonizing Mars. — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 8 Sep. 2026 Personal bias … petty jealousies … vendettas … cronyism … axes to grind. — Steve Buckley, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2026 But armed officers dressed in camouflage alongside military vehicles have apparently not acted as enough of a deterrent to petty criminals. — Antonia Mortensen, CNN Money, 2 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for petty

Recent Examples of Synonyms for petty

Adjective

Book the white, cream, and silver Diaghilev suite, which has double doors that open onto a small balcony with the bay of Positano at your feet.

— Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 26 Sep. 2026
Instead, excess testosterone is converted into dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which causes the hair follicles to become smaller and then the hair strands to become thinner.

— Lindsey Bever, Washington Post, 26 Sep. 2026

Definition of small

Adjective

Patients in Medicaid, the state- and federally-funded program for people with low incomes, already pay a nominal co-payment of a few dollars to fill their prescriptions, but lower prices could help state budgets that fund the programs.

— Fatima Hussein, Chicago Tribune, 18 Sep. 2026
But recent wars have exposed the gap between nominal power and usable military capability.

— NADIA SCHADLOW, Foreign Affairs, 18 Sep. 2026

Definition of nominal

Adjective

Since 2015, a flurry of cases has decided issues as parochial as how much individual athletes are paid out of broadcast revenues and how long student athletes are eligible to play.

— Sen. Rand Paul OutKick, FOXNews.com, 24 Sep. 2026
Back then the age of discovery was at its peak, and startling new information about what had previously been a very parochial planet was flooding into the academies of Europe and the Americas.

— Ian Tattersall, The New York Review of Books, 19 Sep. 2026

Definition of parochial

Adjective

Concerns about this recent deceleration aside, a slight quarter-to-quarter boost is obviously preferable to the bundle’s comparable loss of 953,000 customers between the first and second quarters of this year.

— Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 23 Sep. 2026
There’s only a slight chance for thunderstorms over the weekend and the sun icon, missing for days and days, now shines on its main webpage.

— Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 23 Sep. 2026

Definition of slight

Adjective

If truly transformational donors must remain a narrow exception because their philanthropy creates opportunities for thousands of students, say so openly and make that exception exceedingly rare.

— Jayson Weingarten, Fortune, 26 Sep. 2026
Glen Arbor to Traverse City On the Leelanau Peninsula, M-22 squeezes onto a narrow isthmus between Lake Michigan and Lake Leelanau, landing in the resort community of Leland.

— Mike Norton, Midwest Living, 26 Sep. 2026

Definition of narrow

Adjective

What begins as a trivial disagreement reaches new proportions regarding how far a lack of dialogue can drive people.

— Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 25 Sep. 2026
The book leans on research about decision fatigue—the idea that even trivial choices drain the mental capacity available for harder ones—to argue that the sheer volume of daily inputs, not just their content, has a cost.

— Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 20 Sep. 2026

Definition of trivial

Adjective

Check-in and check-out are swift, valet has relatively little wait time, and the restaurant staff is accustomed to serving meals around performances at the Merrill Theater across the street.

— Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 27 Sep. 2026
That might be a big casserole of stuffing, a batch of chocolate chip cookies, or any situation in which adding too little salt would be a hard deficit to overcome later on.

— Chris Morocco, Bon Appetit Magazine, 26 Sep. 2026