tad
noun
a small child, especially a boy.
tad
1 American
[tad]
/ tæd /
noun
Informal.
-
tads
plural
-
a small child, especially a boy.
-
a very small amount or degree; bit.
Please shift your chair a tad to the right. The frosting could use a tad more vanilla.
Tad
2
American
[tad]
/ tæd /
noun
tad
British
/ tæd /
noun
-
a small boy; lad
-
a small bit or piece
-
a little; rather
she may be a tad short but she got a top modelling job
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tad
1875–80, tad for def. 1; 1935–40, tad for def. 2; perhaps shortening of tadpole
Explanation
A tad is a very small amount, so if a recipe calls for a tad of hot pepper, it's not a good idea to dump in the whole bottle. The informal noun or adverb tad is useful when you want another way to say "a bit" or "a smidge." If you stumble over one of your lines in the school play, you might be just a tad embarrassed, but if you fall in the middle of your big scene and pull the curtain down with you, you'll feel more than a tad humiliated. Before it meant "small amount," tad meant "young child."
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:
The dollar index DXY is a tad higher, while gold futures GC00 are trading around $4.670 an ounce.
From MarketWatch ● May 11, 2026
Can’t wait to see what Smith wears on the big day — hopefully it will be a tad less weighty.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026
Its target rises a tad to A$13.55 from A$13.50.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
The crash in the race wasn't his fault but perhaps he could have judged his overspeed a tad better - easy for me to say.
From BBC ● Mar. 29, 2026
“Don’t worry—the security there is a tad unorthodox, but you will be just as safe there as you are here.”
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
Thayil brings the reader with him as he experiences learning about Kurt Cobain’s death while on the road in Europe with Tad, another band from the Seattle scene.
From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2026
Tad Heuer, representing the National Trust for Historic Preservation, urged the court to halt the ballroom project.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Tad lived to be 18, dying in 1871, possibly of pneumonia.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026
Donations came from the WhatsApp founder Jan Koum, the WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, and the philanthropists Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock and Tad and Dianne Taube, among others.
From New York Times ● May 2, 2024
Tad wanted to meet him alone in a physics teacher’s classroom?
From "Time Bomb" by Joelle Charbonneau
That clocking would have rated Weissmuller nothing but a spectator's seat at last week's National A.A.U. championships in Lincoln, Neb., where tads the size of his beloved Cheetah smashed five world and eleven meet records.
From Time Magazine Archive
For my tads, the educational materials include a 2-ft. sign joyously inscribed MOMMY.
From Time Magazine Archive
One day Estes, Robert and some other tads were swimming in the nearby Tellico River.
From Time Magazine Archive
But wasn't it a good time, Long Time Ago— When we all were little tads And first played "Show"!
From The Book of Joyous Children by Will Vawter
Sometimes the little tads would run from me, screaming as though they had met a lion or some other wild beast of the forest.
From The Conquest The Story of a Negro Pioneer by Oscar Micheaux
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.
