small-minded

American  

[smawl-mahyn-did] / ˈsmɔlˈmaɪn dɪd /

adjective

1. selfish, petty, or narrow-minded.

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small-minded British  

adjective

1. narrow-minded; petty; intolerant; mean

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Other Word Forms

• small-mindedly adverb
• small-mindedness noun

Etymology

Origin of small-minded

First recorded in 1840–50

Explanation

Someone who's small-minded has a narrow perspective or very firm, unchangeable opinions on things. It's almost impossible to get a small-minded voter to change his or her mind. If you're small-minded, you have a biased view of the world, and you're probably not very tolerant of those with different opinions or experiences. It's as if small-minded people can't step outside their own perspective to empathize with others. A small-minded governor might want to keep all immigrants out of his state, and someone with a small-minded focus on money won't understand your dream of being a poet.

Example Sentences

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

It’s a small-minded and petty ploy, but it’s a dangerous one.

From Slate • Feb. 21, 2025

So it was like, you gotta get out because St. Louis is so small-minded.

From Salon • Jul. 4, 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

It was a small-minded and ludicrous insult, sure, but his mocking of my intellect, his marginalizing of my young self, carried with it a larger dismissiveness.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama