little
Americanadjective
-
littler,
comparative
-
less,
comparative
-
lesser,
comparative
-
littlest,
superlative
-
least
superlative
-
small in size; not big; not large; tiny.
a little desk in the corner of the room.
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short in duration; not extensive; short; brief.
a little while.
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small in number.
a little group of scientists.
-
small in amount or degree; not much.
little hope.
-
of a certain amount; appreciable (usually preceded bya ).
We're having a little difficulty.
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being such on a small scale.
little farmers.
-
younger or youngest.
He's my little brother.
-
not strong, forceful, or loud; weak.
a little voice.
-
small in consideration, importance, position, affluence, etc..
little discomforts;
tax reductions to help the little fellow.
-
mean, narrow, or illiberal.
a little mind.
-
endearingly small or considered as such.
Bless your little heart!
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amusingly small or so considered.
a funny little way of laughing.
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contemptibly small, petty, mean, etc., or so considered.
filthy little political tricks.
adverb
noun
-
a small amount, quantity, or degree.
They did little to make him comfortable.
If you want some ice cream, there's a little in the refrigerator.
-
a short distance.
It's down the road a little.
-
a short time.
Stay here for a little.
idioms
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think little of, to treat casually; regard as trivial.
They think little of driving 50 miles to see a movie.
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little by little, by small degrees; gradually.
The water level rose little by little.
-
make little of,
-
to belittle.
to make little of one's troubles.
-
to understand or interpret only slightly.
Scholars made little of the newly discovered text.
-
-
in little, on a small scale; in miniature.
a replica in little of Independence Hall.
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not a little, to a great extent; very much; considerably.
It tired me not a little to stand for three hours.
determiner
-
(often preceded by a)
-
a small quantity, extent, or duration of
the little hope there is left
very little milk
-
( as pronoun )
save a little for me
-
-
not much
little damage was done
-
See make of
-
-
very
-
a lot
-
-
a considerable amount
-
to have a low opinion of
adjective
-
of small or less than average size
-
young
a little boy
our little ones
-
endearingly familiar; dear
my husband's little ways
-
contemptible, mean, or disagreeable
your filthy little mind
-
(of a region or district) resembling another country or town in miniature
little Venice
-
a person's secret intention or business
so that's his little game!
-
considerable
adverb
-
(usually preceded by a) in a small amount; to a small extent or degree; not a lot
to laugh a little
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(used preceding a verb) not at all, or hardly
he little realized his fate
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not much or often
we go there very little now
-
by small degrees
Usage
What is a basic definition of little? Little describes something that is small in size. Little also describes a short time. And little can refer to a small amount of something. Little has many other senses as an adjective, adverb, and noun. If something is little, it is tiny or physically small. Little is the opposite of words like big, huge, and gigantic. The noun form of this sense is littleness. Real-life examples: Newborn babies are little. A single grain of sand is little. A dime is a little coin compared to quarters and nickels. Used in a sentence: I found a little piece of paper tucked inside the small book. Little also describes a short amount of time. This sense is commonly used as “a little while” or “a little bit.” This sense is a synonym of words like brief or short. Real-life examples: A five-minute rest is a little break. You might go away for a weekend and call it a little vacation. You might stay at a friend’s house for a little while before saying goodbye. And 367 days is a little over a year. Used in a sentence: We stopped at the gas station for a little bit to fill up the car before continuing our trip. Little can also describe a small amount of something. Real-life examples: A chef might add a little salt to a recipe. There might be a little rain on a cloudy day. A new chess player usually has little chance of beating a professional. Used in a sentence: She added to the romantic atmosphere by playing a little music. Little is also used in this sense as a noun. Used in a sentence: If you are looking for paint, there is a little in the supply closet.
Synonym Usage
Little, diminutive, minute, small refer to that which is not large or significant. Little (the opposite of big ) is very general, covering size, extent, number, quantity, amount, duration, or degree: a little boy; a little time. Small (the opposite of large and of great ) can many times be used interchangeably with little, but is especially applied to what is limited or below the average in size: small oranges. Diminutive denotes (usually physical) size that is much less than the average or ordinary; it may suggest delicacy: the baby's diminutive fingers; diminutive in size but autocratic in manner. Minute suggests that which is so tiny it is difficult to discern, or that which implies attentiveness to the smallest details: a minute quantity; a minute exam.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of little
First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English lȳtel ( lȳt “few, small” + -el diminutive suffix), cognate with Dutch luttel, Old High German luzzil, Old Norse lītill
Explanation
Anything small, brief, young, or unimportant can be described as little. If you live in a little cottage, it means your house is very small, and quite possibly adorable. The word little describes something tiny and sweet, like a little kitten or a little doll house rocking chair. Little can also mean some, but not much, like when you only want a little soup — not a big bowl, or when you put little effort into your appearance when you are doing yard work. The expression little by little means very slowly, or by tiny increments, like learning a new language little by little.
Vocabulary lists containing little
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.
See Examples For:
But the city’s concentrated investment strategy means that some neighborhoods most in need of attention have received very little.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
He taped the unfeeling fingers to the functioning ones so that he could grip a baseball, then, resembling “a little boy throwing against the steps of his back porch,” threw against a wall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
U.S. stock-index futures were little changed on Sunday after a quiet week on Wall Street, as investors await hints from the Fed concerning the outlook for interest rates.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 16, 2026
This version simmers ripe peaches with honey and whole black peppercorns until the fruit collapses and the syrup turns fragrant, floral and just a little prickly.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
I don’t think it’s that big a deal; the little kids in the neighborhood are always as destructive as they are adorable.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
According to Reuters, it took close to five months for the world's deadliest outbreak of 2014-2016 in West Africa to reach 1,000 fatalities - the current outbreak reached 2,000 deaths in less than three months.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
More than 70 percent of its population of 22 million lives on less than $3 a day, according to the World Bank, despite the country also having significant potential in cobalt, nickel and manganese.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
About 74% of returns that filed a capital gain in 2022 had household incomes of less than $200,000, according to Internal Revenue Service data parsed by Americans for Tax Reform.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
And after seeing many young pitchers, some still in their teens, undergo the surgery named for him, he spoke out against arm overuse, recommending less than year-round pitching by young arms.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
On it sits is a drawing that feels less intimate, purely technical in nature.
From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse
Berton, the national disaster agency spokesman, said at least 914 houses on the island were severely damaged and hundreds of others to a lesser degree.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
His offspring are made of lesser stuff than him, but our hero manages to earn redemption by flinging a stockcar around a tri-oval racetrack 180 times at 200 miles per hour.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Still, the director’s contributions for the most part supported the underlying emotional drama, which, in lesser musical and theatrical hands, can be flattened into an evening of empty display.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
“We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her,” Belfield said in the statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026
How can you choose the lesser of two evils, when both evils are too great to measure?
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
The program included a little bit of everything, and the littler the bits, the better.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2025
"You wouldn't think there were that many places to hide but when Ramona was littler, I think she'd been in every cupboard in one of those trailers," says Drew-Honey, now 28.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2024
The new paper adds an additional seven dark comets to the list, including bigger ones that inhabit the outer solar system and littler ones that remain in the inner solar system.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2024
No surprise there—as the term accelerates toward a contentious finale, the tensions roiling major cases are bound to spill over into littler ones.
From Slate ● Jun. 17, 2024
Laura was bathed first, because she was littler than Mary.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Cali's mayor, Alejandro Eder, estimated that the reconstruction of Colombia's third-largest city will cost at least $3.2 billion.
From Barron's ● Aug. 17, 2026
Alibaba Group 9988 1.75%increase; green up pointing triangle is selling its videogame arm in a deal worth at least $1.5 billion, as the Chinese company shifts its focus to artificial intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
He can walk, but the trek from the broadcast booth to the parking lot is too much, at least for now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Pocognoli will be expected to, at least, maintain that success.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
At least the dogs weren’t in danger of starving.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
The littlest Mac has gone viral as a cost-effective way for AI power users to run local large language models that can eat up dozens of gigabytes of RAM, aka memory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
"It's the littlest things that can trigger you. Even cutting a piece of fruit with a knife or seeing blood can be triggering; just normal, mundane things," she said.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2025
They separate the haves from the have-nots with astonishing pay imbalances we wouldn’t permit even in the littlest leagues.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2024
Caiazzo was part of a research team that in 2021 reported on one with a petite diameter slightly larger than Earth's moon that boasted the greatest mass and littlest size of any known white dwarf.
From Reuters ● Jul. 21, 2023
The littlest children and some of the older women rode in the open wagons, but everyone else walked.
From "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen
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.
