Minute

How to spell minute

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce minute

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does minute mean?

1. nounA unit of time equal to sixty seconds, or a very short period.
2. nounA written summary of what was said and decided at a meeting (usually plural).
3. adjectiveExtremely small in size, amount, or degree.

Minute in a sentence

• noun

  The meeting will start in one minute, so please take your seats.

• noun

  The chair asked that a minute be recorded for that decision.

• adjective

  The technician examined the minute crack under a microscope.

• noun

  She boiled the eggs for exactly one minute less than usual.

• noun

  The secretary entered a minute for every item settled at the table.

• adjective

  Even a minute change in temperature can spoil the experiment.

Where does minute come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Both readings of this word descend from the Latin minutus, meaning 'made small' or 'diminished', the past participle of the verb minuere, 'to lessen' or 'to reduce'. The time word travelled a more elaborate route: medieval astronomers and mathematicians divided the hour and the circle into sixty parts, calling the first division pars minuta prima, 'the first small part', and the next pars minuta secunda, 'the second small part', which is also why we have 'second'. English took 'minute' from Old French in the 1300s, first for the small unit of time and angle, and the adjective sense 'extremely small' arrived later directly from the Latin. The two senses split apart in pronunciation but kept one spelling, which is the whole trap: the silent shift of stress is invisible on the page. The same minuere root survives in 'diminish', 'minus' and 'minor', all carrying that core idea of making something smaller.

How the word is built

• minut- (from Latin minutus: made small)
• -e