tiny
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of tiny
First recorded in 1590–1600; late Middle English tine “very small” + -y 1; further origin uncertain
Explanation
Tiny means very small. Atoms are tiny. Hawaii is tiny, in comparison to the continental US. If you wear a size five shoe as an adult, you could be said to have tiny feet. Throughout the world there are stories about tiny mythical heroes, such as Tom Thumb, a tiny baby, who grew into a tiny child then a man so tiny he was no larger than an average man's thumb. One of the things that people love about doll houses are seeing all the artifacts we live with day to day replicated in miniature, or tiny, form.
Vocabulary lists containing tiny
It's the Little Things: Synonyms for "Small"
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"Eleven," Vocabulary from the short story
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"Imperfect Me"
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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:
Although that amount may sound tiny, it is unusually high for mantle-derived magma.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
Hook always wanted to bite Cosmo with his few remaining yellowed, tiny teeth that Delilah compared to candy corn.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
During searches, officers found a brown paper bag containing a tiny item they initially thought was a baby bird.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
It starts off as a cute little white cloud -- a cumulus cloud, which is formed because water vapour has turned into tiny droplets.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
He wears a large brass buckle with, I think, tiny stars and CS.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
These ultrathin materials, made from just one or a few atomic layers, have been viewed as promising candidates for building even tinier electronic devices.
From Science Daily ● May 9, 2026
A group of even tinier microcaps outperformed the S&P 100, made up of the largest companies, by almost 12 percentage points.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 26, 2026
“Institutional investors are a tiny share of the market, and a tinier share of the total U.S. housing market. There is not good enough evidence that institutional investors drive up home prices,” he added.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 7, 2026
But I think it’s Trello, a much tinier service, that tells the most concise story of how technology companies are now looking at their users.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2025
The silver trumpet, the cockeyed teddy bear with his red and white scarf, the tiny sled packed with tinier toys.
From "Orbiting Jupiter" by Gary D. Schmidt
Lacunar stroke develops when the brain's tiniest blood vessels are damaged by a condition known as small vessel disease.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 3, 2026
And on Friday, in the biggest game one of the World Cup’s tiniest nations had ever played, Cape Verde applied relentless pressure to Saudi Arabia, to secure another draw.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
But the tiniest silver lining of the path he’s taken means I have one more thing to help navigate accepting my voice: an example of what happens when someone retreats into fear and shame.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2026
A temperature at which even the tiniest particles are still.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
The where and the why and the I don’t know form the tiniest ball of cells you’d need a microscope to see.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
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.
