Standard Lemma guide

minutia

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /maɪ̯ˈn(j)uːʃ(iː)ə/
  • /məˈn(j)uːʃ(iː)ə/
  • UK: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M IH0 N UW1 SH IY0 AH0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A minor detail, often of negligible importance.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • They spent all their time on minutiae, never making real progress.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any of the point features on fingerprints used for matching, usually endings and bifurcations of ridges.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Qualifier: forensics

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a small or minor detail

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • he had memorized the many minutiae of the legal code

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: detail, item, point

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin minutia, from minūtus (“small, little”), from minuō (“make smaller”). By surface analysis, minute + -ia.

Across languages

Translations

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: minúcia — minor detail
  • Catalan: minuciositat — minor detail
  • Danish: petitesse — minor detail
  • Esperanto: detaleto — minor detail
  • Estonian: pisidetail — minor detail
  • Finnish: pikkuseikka — minor detail
  • French: petit détail — minor detail
  • German: Detail — minor detail
  • German: Einzelheit — minor detail
  • German: winziges Detail — minor detail
  • German: Kleinigkeit — minor detail
  • German: Nebensächlichkeit — minor detail
  • Hebrew: פרטי פרטים (pirtéy pratím) — minor detail
  • Hungarian: (apró/aprólékos) részletek — minor detail
  • Ido: detaleto — minor detail
  • Japanese: 枝葉末節 (siyōmassetsu) — minor detail
  • Polish: drobiazg — minor detail
  • Spanish: mezquindad — minor detail
  • Spanish: minucia — minor detail