small
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /smɔːl/
ipa: [smoːɫ]
ipa: /smɔl/
ipa: /smɑl/
ipa: /smoːl/
rhymes: -ɔːl
Forms: form: smaller
form: smallest
Etymology: From Middle English smal, from Old English smæl (“small, narrow, slender”), from Proto-Germanic *smalaz (“small”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mal-, *(s)mel- (“small, mean, malicious”). Cognate with Scots smal; sma (“small”); West Frisian smel (“narrow”); Dutch smal (“narrow”); German schmal (“narrow, small”); Low German small (“narrow”); Danish, Norwegian, Swedish smal (“narrow; thin; slender”); Latin malus (“bad”); Russian ма́лый (mályj, “small”).
Senses: examples: text: A small serving of ice cream.
text: A small group.
text: Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
ref: 2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, archived from the original on 25 Nov 2020, page 70:
text: The orbiter has been observing the moon since 2009, and its reflector is a smaller version of reflector panels placed on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11, 14 and 15 landings on the moon. Soviet lunar robotic landers sent in 1970 and 1973 also carried smaller reflectors.
ref: 2020 August 13, Ashley Strickland, “The reason we’re shooting laser beams between Earth and the moon”, in CNN:
text: Guinness World Record confirmed the micro-cube as the world’s smallest rotating puzzle cube in August.
ref: 2024 October 4, Chris Lau and Nodoka Katsura, “This is the world’s smallest Rubik’s Cube. And it actually works”, in CNN:
synonyms: little
microscopic
minuscule
minute
tiny
antonyms: word: big
word: generous
word: large
word: small
word: tiny
glosses: Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.
examples: text: The bullies had succeeded in making him feel small.
text: For all the times that you made me feel small / I fell in love, now I feel nothing at all
ref: 2015, Justin Bieber, Love Yourself:
synonyms: little
microscopic
minuscule
minute
tiny
antonyms: word: big
word: generous
word: large
word: small
word: tiny
glosses: Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.
Humiliated or insignificant.
examples: text: (of genitals)
text: Though over six feet tall, the man was very small and ashamed to undress.
synonyms: little
microscopic
minuscule
minute
tiny
little
under-endowed
antonyms: word: big
word: generous
word: large
word: small
word: tiny
glosses: Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.
Having a small penis, muscles, or other important body parts, regardless of overall body size.
examples: text: Remember when the children were small?
synonyms: little
wee
young
antonyms: adult
grown-up
old
glosses: Young, as a child.
examples: text: "I've got catholic tastes. Catholic with a small "c", of course."
ref: 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 584:
topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
publishing
writing
synonyms: lowercase
minuscule
antonyms: big
capital
majuscule
uppercase
glosses: Minuscule or lowercase, referring to written or printed letters.
examples: text: A true delineation of the smallest man is capable of interesting the greatest man.
ref: 1851, Thomas Carlyle, The Life of John Sterling:
glosses: Evincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; paltry; mean.
examples: text: a small space of time
glosses: Not prolonged in duration; not extended in time; short.
examples: small science
glosses: Synonym of little (“of an industry or institution(s) therein: operating on a small scale, unlike larger counterparts”).
synonyms: word: little
extra: (“of an industry or institution(s) therein: operating on a small scale, unlike larger counterparts”)
glosses: Slender, gracefully slim.
examples: text: I'll have a small coffee, thanks.
topics: business
clothing
fashion
lifestyle
manufacturing
textiles
qualifier: food or drink
glosses: That is small (the manufactured size).
Synonyms: word: compact
word: fun size
word: fun-sized
word: ickle
word: insignificant
word: lit'l
word: little
word: low
word: modest
word: mini
word: petty
word: pint-sized
word: pocket-size
word: slim
word: slight
word: small
word: small-scale
word: undersized
word: wee
word: wurly
Hyponyms: word: short
word: bitty
word: diddy
word: diminutive
word: dinky
word: eensy-weensy
word: eeny-weeny
word: incy wincy
word: infinitesimal
word: itsy-bitsy
word: itty-bitty
word: lilliputian
word: micro
word: microscopic
word: miniature
word: minnow
word: minuscule
word: minute
word: negligible
word: puny
word: shrimpy
word: teensy
word: teentsy
word: teensy-weensy
word: teeny
word: teeny-tiny
word: teeny-weeny
word: tiddly
word: tiddy
word: tinchy
word: tinchy-winchy
word: tiny
word: titchy
word: Tom Thumb
word: weeny
word: weensy
Derived terms: word: a small matter
word: Baker's small-toothed harvest mouse
word: besmall
word: be thankful for small mercies
word: better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness
word: big fish in a small pond
word: big things come in small packages
word: caps and small caps
word: don't sweat the small stuff
word: double small pica
word: ensmallen
word: extra extra extra small
word: extra extra small
word: extra-small
word: extra small
word: good things come in small packages
word: in no small measure
word: in no small part
word: in small doses
word: it's a small world
word: Khitan small script
word: locally small
word: nonsmall
word: no small feat
word: oversmall
word: play small
word: programming in the small
word: sing small
word: small ad
word: smallage
word: small ale
word: small and early
word: small and medium-sized enterprise
word: small animal
word: small appliance
word: small arm
word: small arms
word: small ball
word: smallball
word: Small Banisilan
word: small beer
word: small bikkies
word: small-billed tinamou
word: small blind
word: small block
word: small blue
word: Smallbone
word: small-bore
word: small bowel
word: small breasts
word: small brown crow
word: small business
word: small calorie
word: small-cap
word: small cap
word: small capital
word: small capitals
word: smallcapped
word: small caps
word: small card
word: small-card
word: small carpenter bee
word: small carpetgrass
word: small category
word: small-c conservative
word: small-cell carcinoma
word: small-cell lung cancer
word: small change
word: small chops
word: small circle
word: small claims court
word: small clause
word: smallclothes
word: small coal
word: smallcoat
word: small copper
word: small craft
word: smallcraft
word: small crumbweed
word: small cubicuboctahedron
word: small d democrat
english: d
translation: d
word: small democrat
word: small-d democrat
word: small-dick energy
word: small dick energy
word: small dog syndrome
word: small-eared dog
word: small-eared galago
word: smallen
word: small end of the wedge
word: smaller European elm bark beetle
word: small fat
word: small final
word: small firm effect
word: small-flowered tonella
word: Small Flowery Miao
word: smallfolk
word: small fortune
word: small forward
word: small fry
word: small game
word: smallgood
word: small goods
word: smallgoods
word: small-grained
word: small gross
word: small hand
word: small hat
word: Small Heath
word: small heath
word: smallholder
word: smallholding
word: small holding
word: small hours
word: Small Hythe
word: small icosihemidodecahedron
word: smallie
word: small if
word: smallify
word: small interfering RNA
word: small intestine
word: small investor
word: smallish
word: Small Isles
word: Small Kapataga
word: small language model
word: small leader
word: small leaved lilly pilly
word: small letter
word: small l liberal
english: l
translation: l
word: small liberal
word: small-l liberal
english: l
translation: l
word: small libertarian
word: small l libertarian
word: small-l libertarian
word: small loop
word: Smallman
word: small man syndrome
word: small-minded
word: small-mindedly
word: small-mindedness
word: small minivet
word: small miracle
word: small molecule drug
word: smallmouth
word: smallmouth bass
word: smallmouth black bass
word: smallness
word: small nightshade
word: small nuclear ribonucleoprotein
word: small or medium-sized enterprise
word: small packet
word: Small Party of Good Boys
word: small penis humiliation
word: small penis syndrome
word: small pica
word: small plate
word: small pock
word: small potatoes
word: small-potatoes
word: small pox
word: smallpox
word: small-pox
word: small press
word: small print
word: small rain lays great dust
word: small reed
word: small-reed
word: small room
english: r
translation: r
word: small republican
word: small-r republican
word: small r republican
word: smalls
word: small saphenous vein
word: smallsat
word: small scale
word: small-scale
word: small-scaled snake
word: small screen
word: small seal script
word: small shellies
word: small-sized
word: small skipper
word: small slam
word: small-small
word: small Solar System body
word: smallsome
word: small-spotted catshark
word: small stuff
word: smallsword
word: small talk
word: small-talk
word: small-talker
word: small text
word: small-ticket
word: small time
word: small-time
word: smalltime
word: small-timer
word: Smalltimore
word: small-toothed palm civet
word: small tortoiseshell
word: small-town
word: small town
word: smalltown
word: small-towner
word: small-townish
word: small-townism
word: small ubiquitin-related modifier
word: small unmarked bills
word: small, unmarked bills
word: Smallville
word: smallware
word: small white
word: small wonder
word: small words
word: small world
word: small-worldness
word: small-world network
word: small-world phenomenon
word: smally
word: some small matter
word: supersmall
word: sweat the small stuff
word: ultrasmall
word: unmarked small bills
word: unsmall
word: wee small hour
word: wee small hours
word: what a small world
Related terms: word: nano-
word: micro-
word: mini-
word: marginal
word: minor
word: -ette
word: -ee
word: -y
word: size
word: moderate