minim

[min-uhm]

noun

1. the smallest unit of liquid measure, 1/60 (0.0167) of a fluid dram, roughly equivalent to one drop. min, min.; ♍, ♏

2. Music.,  a note, formerly the shortest in use, but now equivalent in time value to one half of a semibreve; half note.

3. the least quantity of anything.

4. something very small or insignificant.

5. (initial capital letter),  a member of a mendicant religious order founded in the 15th century by St. Francis of Paola.

adjective

1. smallest.

2. very small.

minim

/ ˈmɪnɪm /

noun

1. M. a unit of fluid measure equal to one sixtieth of a drachm. It is approximately equal to one drop

2. Usual US and Canadian name: half-note. music a note having the time value of half a semibreve

3. a small or insignificant person or thing

4. a downward stroke in calligraphy

adjective

1. rare,  very small; tiny

Word History and Origins

Origin of minim¹

1400–50; late Middle English < Medieval Latin, Latin minimus; as musical term, < Medieval Latin ( nota ) minima; minimum

Word History and Origins

Origin of minim¹

C15 (in its musical meaning): from Latin minimus smallest

Example Sentences

The relation a lived life bears to the black marks on the page is more akin to the way musicians turn minims and crotchets into the sublime craziness, of, say, Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge.

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I vaguely wondered how I might annotate it on a musical stave – a run of semiquavers, a minim’s pause, and triplets: presto agitato!

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The patrol says the minim age for operating a motorcycle in North Dakota is 14.

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Orth injected ten minims of peritoneal fluid from a woman dead of puerperal fever into the abdomen of a rabbit.

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He, according to "Wegeler's Notizen," gives it with a minim—I with a crotchet; but neither of these can, to my mind, be made to suit the character of the movement.

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