Slim

How to spell slim

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce slim

What does slim mean?

1. adjectiveGracefully thin; small in width or quantity.
2. verbTo lose weight, or to reduce something in size or extent.

Slim in a sentence

• adjective

  The new laptop has a remarkably slim design that fits any bag.

• verb

  He hoped to slim a little before the summer holiday.

• adjective

  She carried a slim leather wallet that slid easily into her pocket.

• verb

  The company plans to slim its product range to cut costs.

Where does slim come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Slim entered English in the seventeenth century from Dutch, where slim meant 'bad', 'sly', or 'crafty', and it is closely related to the German schlimm, meaning 'bad' or 'severe'. Further back, the shared Germanic root carried the sense of 'slanting' or 'crooked', which is how a word about being askew drifted toward a word about being thin. In its earliest English use it could still mean 'worthless' or 'sly', a hint of which survives when we speak of a 'slim chance', meaning a poor or scanty one. The familiar modern sense of 'slender in build' became dominant by the eighteenth century and pushed the older, negative meanings aside. The spelling stayed admirably plain, just four letters, so the main thing to remember is the single m, since adding inflections such as slimmer or slimming doubles it.

How the word is built

• slim (single root from a Low Germanic word meaning slanting, then slender); no prefix or suffix