minutes

British  

/ ˈmɪnɪts /

plural noun

1. an official record of the proceedings of a meeting, conference, convention, etc

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Explanation

Minutes are notes that are taken at a meeting and often distributed to participants. Often, the secretary of an organization or club is the person who gets stuck taking the minutes. The best minutes provide a summary of the most important items that were discussed during a meeting. Parent-teacher organizations, city councils, and court hearings all include someone who takes minutes. In the case of a hearing, every single word spoken in the courtroom, unless specifically excluded by the judge, is included in the minutes. The Latin root of minutes is minuta scriptura, "rough notes," or "small writing."

Example Sentences

Among the volunteers are local veterinarians who are ready to help an injured capybara with 15 minutes’ notice.

From Slate • May 27, 2026

Thea's family moved home to be ten minutes' drive from nine-bedded Sunndach.

From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026

A few minutes’ drive from Ansari’s Kensington apartments, a boutique London hotel called the Gainsborough Hotel sold for £6.5 million in 2018 to an entity controlled by Salim Ahmed Said, according to U.K. property records.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

Locals say no rain has fallen on Lallays, around 45 minutes' drive from the capital Hargeisa, since last June or July -- even though this is traditionally the wettest part of Somaliland.

From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026

Then she would've cracked a joke about it taking me a million hours to do forty-five minutes' worth of work, which is why Doris assigned it to me.

From "When I Was the Greatest" by Jason Reynolds