Standard Lemma guide

smidgen

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈsmɪd͡ʒɪn/
  • General-American: /ˈsmɪd͡ʒɪn/
  • General-American: /-ən/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɪdʒɪn
  • rhymes with -ɪdʒən
  • CMU ARPABET: S M IH1 JH AH0 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Chiefly in the form a smidgen of: a very small amount or quantity; a bit, a trace.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

Examples

  • Move it a smidgen to the right.
  • Would you like some more cake? ―I’ll have a smidgen.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: drop, pinch, smidge, smidget, smidgy, smitch, touch, ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught, bissel, bit, crumb, glimpse, dab, damn, dash, diddly, glint, dot, spatter, dusting, fleck, glimmer, hint, flip, flyspeck, grain, halfpennyworth, inch, iota, jot, lick, mite, modicum, molecule, morceau, morsel, mote, ooch, ounce, particle, pennyworth, piece, relish, scantling, semblance, scent, scintilla, scooch, scrap, scruple, shred, skerrick, skoosh, skosh, sliver, smattering, smidgen, smithereen, soupçon, spark, speck, speckle, spot, sprinkle, sprinkling, strain, tad, tidbit, tidge, tinge, tittle, toddick, trace, trifle, tuppence worth, vestige, whiff, whit

Antonyms: abundance, battalion, arseload, assload, bellyload, boatload, brimful, busload, bucketful, bucketload, butt-ton, bumload, buttload, cartload, crapflood, crapload, deal, fuckload, fuckton, fuckwad, gob, great deal, hantle, heap, hecatomb, helluvalot, horseload, lashings, load, lot, mampus, many, mass, metric fuckton, metric shitload, mickle, mountain, muckle, multiplicity, multitude, pile, ream, shedload, shitflood, shitful, shitload, shitton, sight, slew, spadeloads, sum, superflux, ton, trainload, truckload, tun, vaultful, wagonload

2

noun

Meaning 2

Chiefly in the form a smidgen of a: a very small or insignificant person or thing; also, an instance of such a person or thing.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly, informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: dwarf, midget, pipsqueak, shorty, absolute zero, also-ran, chopped liver, cipher, crumb, Joe Nobody, little guy, minnow, nebbish, nobody, no one, nothing, nothingburger, nonentity, picayune, pip-squeak, pleb, peon, prole, puny, quidam, rinky-dink, shrimp, wankstain, zero, zilch

Antonyms: bulk, giant, behemoth, Brobdingnagian, colossus, ettin, Goliath, hulk, hunk, jumbo, leviathan, mammoth, mastodon, monster, mountain, thurse, titan, whale, whopper, baron, big cheese, big enchilada, big gun, big kahuna, big man, big name, big noise, big shot, bigwig, big wheel, boss, grand poobah, head honcho, heavy hitter, heavyweight, high muckamuck, high muckety-muck, king of all one surveys, king of the castle, king of the hill, kingpin, macher, mayor, muckamuck, muckety muck, mugwump, numero uno, panjandrum, poobah, rooster, somebody, top banana, top boy, top cat, top dog, top gun, very important person, VIP, wheel

3

noun

Meaning 3

a tiny or scarcely detectable amount

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: shred, scintilla, whit, iota, tittle, smidgeon, smidgin, smidge

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: small indefinite quantity, small indefinite amount

History

Etymology

Origin uncertain; possibly from smitch (“(originally Scotland, chiefly US) very small amount or quantity”) + possibly -in (a variant of -ing (suffix forming nouns denoting things considered collectively)). Smitch is possibly: * derived from smitch (“smoke from a burning or smouldering thing; spot of dirt; blemish; dirt, grime”), a variant of smeech (“(southwest England) (dense or pungent) smoke; airborne dust”), from Middle English smeche, smek, smiche (“smoke from a burning or smouldering thing; cloud of smoke; fumes, vapour; smell”), from Old English smēc, smīc (“smoke; steam; vapour”), from Proto-West Germanic *smauki (“smoke”), related to Proto-Germanic *smeukaną (“to fume, smoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *smewgh- (“smoke”); or * borrowed from Scots smitch (“smudge, stain; blemish; very small amount, speck, trace; small insignificant person”), possibly a variant of English smutch (“dirty mark, smudge, stain; dirt, grime; slight indication”) (probably related to smudge, ultimate etymology unknown) and influenced by English smit (“(UK, dialectal) a stain”).

Across languages

Translations

59 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Asturian: pinta — very small amount or quantity
  • Bulgarian: малко количество (malko količestvo) — very small amount or quantity
  • Bulgarian: парченце (parčence) — very small amount or quantity
  • Catalan: busca — very small amount or quantity
  • Catalan: engruna — very small amount or quantity
  • Catalan: esquitx — very small amount or quantity
  • Catalan: volva — very small amount or quantity
  • Chinese Mandarin: 少量 (shǎoliàng) — very small amount or quantity
  • Chinese Mandarin: 微量 (wēiliàng) — very small amount or quantity
  • Czech: ždibec — very small amount or quantity
  • Czech: drobet — very small amount or quantity
  • Czech: troška — very small amount or quantity
  • Finnish: hippunen — very small amount or quantity
  • Finnish: hitunen — very small amount or quantity
  • Finnish: hiukkanen — very small amount or quantity
  • Finnish: rahtu — very small amount or quantity
  • French: chouïa — very small amount or quantity
  • German: Quäntchen — very small amount or quantity
  • German: Quentchen — very small amount or quantity
  • Greek: δράμι (drámi) — very small amount or quantity
  • Hungarian: csipet — very small amount or quantity
  • Irish: ruainnín — very small amount or quantity
  • Japanese: ちょっぴり (choppiri) — very small amount or quantity
  • Japanese: 少量 (shōryō) — very small amount or quantity
  • Korean: 소량 (soryang) — very small amount or quantity
  • Māori: ngarengare — very small amount or quantity
  • Norwegian Bokmål: dæsj — very small amount or quantity
  • Norwegian Bokmål: smule — very small amount or quantity
  • Polish: kapka — very small amount or quantity
  • Polish: źdźbło — very small amount or quantity
  • Polish: ździebko — very small amount or quantity
  • Portuguese: bocadinho — very small amount or quantity
  • Portuguese: cadinho — very small amount or quantity
  • Portuguese: chichizinho — very small amount or quantity
  • Portuguese: nadinha — very small amount or quantity
  • Portuguese: poucochinho — very small amount or quantity
  • Portuguese: pouquinho — very small amount or quantity
  • Portuguese: tiquito — very small amount or quantity
  • Romanian: bucățică — very small amount or quantity
  • Romanian: câtime — very small amount or quantity
  • Russian: чу́точка (čútočka) — very small amount or quantity
  • Russian: ка́пля (káplja) — very small amount or quantity
  • Russian: ма́лость (málostʹ) — very small amount or quantity
  • Serbo-Croatian: дјѐлић — very small amount or quantity
  • Serbo-Croatian: кома̀дић — very small amount or quantity
  • Serbo-Croatian: мр̏ва — very small amount or quantity
  • Serbo-Croatian: мр̏вица — very small amount or quantity
  • Serbo-Croatian: djèlić — very small amount or quantity
  • Serbo-Croatian: komàdić — very small amount or quantity
  • Serbo-Croatian: mȑva — very small amount or quantity
  • Serbo-Croatian: mȑvica — very small amount or quantity
  • Swedish: gnutta — very small amount or quantity
  • Swedish: smula — very small amount or quantity
  • Turkish: nebze — very small amount or quantity
  • Ottoman Turkish: آوج (avuc) — very small amount or quantity
  • Ottoman Turkish: هیچ (hiç) — very small amount or quantity
  • Ottoman Turkish: پارچه (parça) — very small amount or quantity
  • Vietnamese: vi lượng — very small amount or quantity
  • Welsh: mymryn — very small amount or quantity