small-minded

[smawl-mahyn-did]

adjective

1. selfish, petty, or narrow-minded.

small-minded

adjective

1. narrow-minded; petty; intolerant; mean

Other Word Forms

• small-mindedly adverb
• small-mindedness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of small-minded¹

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

Now, as civil rights are being beaten back to … backwardness by small-minded politicians, there’s a timely element to this perfectly decent, good-hearted, unsurprisingly sentimental miniseries.

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Never has a president been so vindictive and so small-minded.

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“I’m sure there are small-minded people in Manhattan, but our show just wasn’t focused on that part,” he says.

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But it’s not just the small — and small-minded, and small-hearted — wealthy libertarian or right-wing elite.

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Indeed, the “very sleepy and small-minded” island off the coast of England, known for its beautiful coasts, isaltogether a grain of sand in the Channel, hidden underneath the mainland’s shadow.

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