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Minuscule comes from the Latin adjective minusculus ("somewhat smaller" or "fairly small"), which in turn pairs the base of minus ("smaller") with -culus, a diminutive suffix (that is, one indicating small size). The minuscule spelling is consistent with the word’s etymology, but that didn’t stop English speakers from adopting the variant spelling miniscule, likely because they associated it with the combining form mini- and such words as minimal and minimum. Usage commentators generally consider the miniscule spelling an error, but it is widely used in reputable and carefully edited publications, and is accepted as a legitimate variant in some dictionaries. (Our own dictionary identifies miniscule as a "disputed spelling variant.")
Examples of minuscule in a Sentence
Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 23 Oct. 2025
Meanwhile in Taiwan, already minuscule support for reunification dwindles with every passing year.
—Charlie Campbell, Time, 23 Oct. 2025
The kitchen was minuscule and outfitted with ancient appliances.
—Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 2025
Each organoid, roughly the size of a fruit fly’s brain, contains about 10,000 neurons, a minuscule fraction of the 100 billion in a human brain.
—Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 20 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for minuscule
Cite this Entry
“Minuscule.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/minuscule. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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