small-minded

American

[smawl-mahyn-did] / ˈsmɔlˈmaɪn dɪd /

adjective

selfish, petty, or narrow-minded.

small-minded British

adjective

narrow-minded; petty; intolerant; mean

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

small-mindedly adverb
small-mindedness noun

Etymology

Origin of small-minded

First recorded in 1840–50

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.

Determined to give her niece a stable upbringing, Aunt Irene unhappily but dutifully left a comfortable life in Ohio to return to her small-minded hometown in the Deep South.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

“I love it. It’s gorgeous. I mean, I don’t like the small-minded people that live here. Narrow-minded, narrow boys’ club.

From Slate • Oct. 26, 2024

Part of what makes “Civil War” so powerful is how plausible it is, depicting people in rare moments at their best but more often at their worst, riven by self-interest and small-minded fears.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2024

Much of it is faux outrage by small-minded attention seekers.

From Salon • Dec. 25, 2023

I think the disappointment was in myself, for thinking that Samir was simply a small-minded chatterer.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023