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Synonyms

diminish

American

[dih-min-ish] / dɪˈmɪn ɪʃ /

verb (used with object)

to make or cause to seem smaller, less, less important, etc.; lessen; reduce.
Architecture. to give (a column) a form tapering inward from bottom to top.
Music. to make (an interval) smaller by a chromatic half step than the corresponding perfect or minor interval.
to detract from the authority, honor, stature, or reputation of; disparage.

verb (used without object)

to lessen; decrease.

diminish British

/ dɪˈmɪnɪʃ /

verb

to make or become smaller, fewer, or less
(tr) architect to cause (a column, etc) to taper
(tr) music to decrease (a minor or perfect interval) by a semitone
to belittle or be belittled; reduce in authority, status, etc; depreciate

"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

Usage

What does diminish mean? To diminish is to become smaller, fewer, or less, as in If we don’t order more, our stock of supplies will slowly diminish until we run out completely. It can also mean to make smaller, fewer, or less, as in We need to diminish our reliance on fossil fuels. Close synonyms of these senses of diminish are reduce, decrease, and lessen. Diminish can also be used in less literal ways. It can mean to make something seem smaller or less significant, as in The senator tried to diminish his role in the scandal. The verb downplay is used in a similar way. To diminish a person is to reduce or take away from their stature, reputation, or authority in some way—to belittle or disparage them, as in The new tell-all book is clearly an attempt to diminish a man who is regarded as a legend in his field. Example: My interest in sports has diminished since I was a kid—I’m only a casual fan now.

Synonym Usage

See decrease.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of diminish

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English; blend of diminuen (from Anglo-French diminuer, from Medieval Latin dīminuere, from Latin dēminuere “to make smaller”) and minishen minish

Explanation

Diminish means to make smaller or lesser. If you cover a lightbulb with a dark lamp shade, the light from the lamp will diminish. It can also mean become less important. Once the light has been dimmed, its role in lighting the room is diminished. If you look at diminish, you see 'minis' which comes from the Latin word minus, as in subtraction. Other words that share this root are miniature and minuscule, all of which mean something that is small, or at least smallish.

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Vocabulary lists containing diminish

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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:

diminish diminishes diminished diminishing

David Tamayo, head of Colombia's disaster relief agency, acknowledged that the "likelihood of finding survivors is going to diminish" after Thursday.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

"I would never seek to diminish or dismiss any survivor's experience, or to make anyone feel that their pain was not heard or understood," they added.

From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026

Airplane cabins’ lower humidity levels can diminish passengers’ ability to taste and smell, leaving light wines tasting like water, or highly acidic wines tasting sour and overly tangy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Standards, such as the number of children a teacher can supervise, would soon be under local control, leading to variations across the country, which Head Start advocates worry could diminish the quality of the program.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

She shrugged, as if it could somehow diminish the grief he still saw in her eyes, shining so bright in the firelight.

From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

When the temperature difference diminishes between the warmer western Pacific and the cooler eastern Pacific, the typical east-to-west trade winds decrease even further.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

But when summits become a venue for essentially undermining allied assurance and adversary deterrence, their utility diminishes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

It also calls for zero tolerance of bullying or misogyny from No 10 staff and parliamentarians, as well as unprofessional behaviour that diminishes the contributions of women.

From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026

None of this diminishes the extraordinary technical skill of early anatomists.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 21, 2026

“Sure,” he says, “consent feels nice. Letting people decide what’s going to happen with their tissue seems like the right thing to do. But consent diminishes the value of tissue.”

From "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot

Randy, secretly taking a GLP-1 himself, insists to his wife Sharon that his newly diminished appetite is simply evidence of superior habits.

From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026

In some sense, it is a miracle that the party survived, though it has held on in a deeply diminished fashion.

From Slate ● Sep. 18, 2026

Stories abound of local townspeople seeing energy bills soar when they are asked to foot the bill for the infrastructure needed to power new data centres, or finding their already stretched water supplies further diminished.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

The rights holder typically airs specials promoting the show on affiliated TV stations and morning show segments, although those advantages have mattered less in recent years as traditional viewing has diminished.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

A major third could be written as a diminished fourth, for example, or a minor second as an augmented prime.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

National Memorial Arboretum's name change this month has been called "diminishing" and "unnecessary" by some visitors, including veterans.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

On top of that, Kedrosky is alarmed, he said, at the model convergence and diminishing returns of large language models’ performance.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026

The US cattle herd has shrunk to its lowest level since the 1950s -- in part due to drought and international competition -- with the diminishing herd size pushing cattle prices higher.

From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026

With the adoption of artificial intelligence promising—or threatening—to return ever greater rewards to a diminishing number of those best placed to exploit it, the trends will intensify.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

I didn’t risk a second to say good-bye; I crossed the abandoned fields in the rapidly diminishing light and was alone by the time the Congo five-minute twilight began.

From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer

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