minute
1 Americannoun
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minutes
plural
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the sixtieth part (1/60) of an hour; sixty seconds.
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an indefinitely short space of time.
Wait a minute!
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an exact point in time; instant; moment.
Come here this minute!
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minutes, the official record of the proceedings at a meeting of a society, committee, or other group.
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Chiefly British. a written summary, note, or memorandum.
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a rough draft, as of a document.
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Geometry. the sixtieth part of a degree of angular measure, often represented by the sign ′, as in 12° 10′, which is read as 12 degrees and 10 minutes.
verb (used with object)
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minutes,
present (3rd person singular)
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minuted,
past participle, past
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minuting
present participle
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to time exactly, as movements or speed.
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to make a draft of (a document or the like).
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to record in a memorandum; note down.
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to enter in the minutes of a meeting.
adjective
idioms
adjective
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extremely small, as in size, amount, extent, or degree.
minute differences.
- Synonyms:
- minuscule, infinitesimal, tiny
- Antonyms:
- large
-
of minor importance; insignificant; trifling.
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attentive to or concerned with even the smallest details.
a minute examination.
noun
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a period of time equal to 60 seconds; one sixtieth of an hour
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Also called: minute of arc. ′. a unit of angular measure equal to one sixtieth of a degree
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any very short period of time; moment
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a short note or memorandum
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the distance that can be travelled in a minute
it's only two minutes away
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(up-to-the-minute when prenominal) very latest or newest
verb
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to record in minutes
to minute a meeting
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to time in terms of minutes
adjective
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very small; diminutive; tiny
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unimportant; petty
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precise or detailed
a minute examination
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A unit of time equal to 1/60 of an hour or 60 seconds.
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◆ A sidereal minute is 1/60 of a sidereal hour, and a mean solar minute is 1/60 of a mean solar hour.
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See more at sidereal time solar time
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A unit of angular measurement, such as longitude or right ascension, that is equal to 1/60 of a degree or 60 seconds.
Synonym Usage
Minute, instant, moment refer to small amounts of time. A minute, properly denoting 60 seconds, is often used loosely for any very short space of time (and may be interchangeable with second ): I'll be there in just a minute. An instant is practically a point in time, with no duration, though it is also used to mean a perceptible amount of time: not an instant's delay. Moment denotes much the same as instant, though with a somewhat greater sense of duration (but somewhat less than minute ): It will only take a moment.
See little.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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minutesimple
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minutessimple
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have minutedperfect
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has minutedperfect
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am minutingprogressive
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are minutingprogressive
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is minutingprogressive
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have been minutingperfect progressive
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has been minutingperfect progressive
Past
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minutedsimple
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had minutedperfect
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was minutingprogressive
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were minutingprogressive
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had been minutingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of minute1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, Middle French, from Medieval Latin minūta, noun use of feminine of minūtus minute 2
Origin of minute2
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English, from Latin minūtus (past participle of minuere “to make smaller or fewer”), equivalent to minū- verb stem + -tus past participle suffix; see minus, minor
Explanation
Craftsmen can paint whole villages or detailed portraits of people on a grain of rice using minute, or tiny, paintbrushes. Often the works of art are so minute that you can only see them with a magnifying glass. Minutus is the Latin word for "small," and it gave rise to both the adjective minute (my-NOOT), or incredibly small, and the noun minute (MIN-it), or 60 seconds of time. Though they are pronounced differently, both words refer to small measurements. An object can be minute, like a flea compared with its dog, and less concrete things can be minute, like your minute chance of winning the lottery. A minute freckle on the side of your nose is a minute detail of your whole face.
Vocabulary lists containing minute
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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:
They streamed out of the stands after Buendia's brilliant 25-yard bullet found the top corner in the 79th minute, missing Gallagher and Van Hecke's late efforts.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
It has been nine months since their first bout, which ended in less than a minute because of a Pantoja injury and made Van the UFC flyweight champion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
The people said Xi withdrew at the last minute from the gala held last Saturday in New Delhi on the sidelines of the Brics summit, a gathering of emerging-market nations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
It belongs to Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova, who ran a time of one minute 53.28 seconds at a meeting in Munich.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Photographing anyone or anything moving is difficult because the light-sensitive plates are very slow, and a single exposure can take a fall minute.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
It has been 407 minutes since Spurs last scored in the Premier League.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
The call to go could come in ten minutes or ten days—or longer, she says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
With about two minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Lions then reeled off a 23-play drive, which included four JSerra penalties and ate up more than 10 minutes off the clock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
There are only minutes until dinnertime on the East Coast.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
I stare at the minutes ticking by on the screen, the call still in progress, but when I hold it up to my ear there’s only static.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Flyers in the race signed a last minute agreement to delay the start four days, to give opportunity for minuter mechanical overhauling, stricter sifting of entrants' abilities to fly.
From Time Magazine Archive
When living and young the protoplasm extends into these and by minuter perforations connects across them.
From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Asa Gray
Nor need we doubt that even these living invisibles are beset with parasites vastly minuter than themselves, which feed and breed on their surfaces.
From Nature and Culture by Harvey Rice
These few remarks may here serve to characterize this people; we shall later have occasion to add many minuter traits to complete this brief sketch of the Egyptian intellect.
From The Philosophy of History, Vol. 1 of 2 by Friedrich Schlegel
She also perfectly understood the slight shades in our disposition and character, and by thus tracing the springs of action to their minuter sources, advanced with more certainty to the good ends of education.
From Olive Leaves Or, Sketches of Character by L. H. (Lydia Howard) Sigourney
During morning news briefings, journalists quiz Sheinbaum about the minutest details of her latest chats with Trump.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2026
On top of that, the game is continuously stopped while phases of play are checked by VAR for even the minutest of incidents.
From BBC ● Nov. 11, 2025
It’s as if he had antennae that could feel the minutest vibrations across the political world.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 8, 2024
But 26 minutest later, at 2:06 a.m., he reported that the ship “had begun to take a great inclination to the right side, and there was great upheaval and screams.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2023
Morse himself was general superintendent under the appointment of the government and gave attention to the minutest details.
From Inventors by Philip Gengembre Hubert
Sir Chris said this process has been changed since Lord Mandelson's exit, to ensure a formal, minuted interview happens.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2025
The Kraken seized advantage about six minuted later when Vince Dunn wound up at the left point and blistered a slap shot past Dan Vladar to tie things 1-1.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 20, 2023
Lentils might cook in about 30 minuted, but nothing else does.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2016
Later, I typed up our meetings, minuted them, just like the old days.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 1, 2015
While in Rome, he was actively employed in visiting the great works of art, statues, pictures, buildings, palaces, &c. &c. observations on which he minuted down for publication.
From The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1838 by James Gillman
He writes by hand, minuting correspondence he has seen with a letter "B" followed by the Roman numeral "XVI".
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2012
However, he was resolved to stick to the Great Department; and so the work of form-filling, corresponding, minuting, memorandum-making, signing, counter-signing, counter-counter-signing, referring backwards and forwards, and referring sideways, crosswise, and zig-zag, recommenced.
From Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Hushed with broad sunlight lies the hill, And, minuting the long day's loss, The cedar's shadow, slow and still, Creeps o'er its dial of gray moss.
From The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell by James Russell Lowell
I dare say there was a vast amount of minuting, memoranduming, and despatch-boxing, on this mighty subject.
From Speeches: Literary and Social by Charles Dickens
Leaving to Anthony the irksome task of minuting down the roll of time for one unlucky month, turn we to another personage with whom it is high time the reader should be acquainted.
From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 by John Roby
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.
