tad
noun
a small child, especially a boy.
tad
1 American
[tad]
/ tæd /
noun
Informal.
-
a small child, especially a boy.
-
a very small amount or degree; bit.
Please shift your chair a tad to the right. The frosting could use a tad more vanilla.
Tad
2
American
[tad]
/ tæd /
noun
tad
British
/ tæd /
noun
-
a small boy; lad
-
a small bit or piece
-
a little; rather
she may be a tad short but she got a top modelling job
Etymology
Origin of tad
1875–80, tad for def. 1; 1935–40, tad for def. 2; perhaps shortening of tadpole
Explanation
A tad is a very small amount, so if a recipe calls for a tad of hot pepper, it's not a good idea to dump in the whole bottle. The informal noun or adverb tad is useful when you want another way to say "a bit" or "a smidge." If you stumble over one of your lines in the school play, you might be just a tad embarrassed, but if you fall in the middle of your big scene and pull the curtain down with you, you'll feel more than a tad humiliated. Before it meant "small amount," tad meant "young child."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The dollar index DXY is a tad higher, while gold futures GC00 are trading around $4.670 an ounce.
From MarketWatch • May 11, 2026
The crash in the race wasn't his fault but perhaps he could have judged his overspeed a tad better - easy for me to say.
From BBC • Mar. 29, 2026
Headline CPI rose 2.4% last month from a year earlier, matching January’s annual pace and coming in a tad lower than economists’ forecasts.
From Barron's • Mar. 11, 2026
Investors might be a tad disappointed by the absence of a special dividend, even if the ordinary dividend was hiked substantially, he adds.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 4, 2026
In the mornings, he stooped just a tad.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
