miniature
/ˈmɪn.ɪ.tʃə/US/ˈmɪn.(i)ə.tʃəɹ/
miniature noun: greatly diminished size or form; reduced scale.
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Noun
miniature (plural miniatures)
- Greatly diminished size or form; reduced scale.
- A small version of something; a model of reduced scale.
- There was a miniature of a whaling ship in a glass bottle over the mantelpiece.
- The twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany are conceived as a miniature of the whole year, the character of each particular day answering to the character of a particular month.1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 324
- A small, highly detailed painting, a portrait miniature.
- The miniature was a picture of Leo's Greek mother - a lovely, dark-eyed creature.1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
- The art of painting such highly detailed miniature works.
- An illustration in an illuminated manuscript.
- A musical composition which is short in duration.
- Sacha composed a miniature for strings as a final project at the conservatory.
- A chess game which is concluded with very few moves.
- A token in a game representing a unit or character.
- Jack had dozens of miniatures of Napoleonic footsoldiers painted in detailed period regalia for his wargames.
- Lettering in red; rubric distinction.
- A particular feature or trait.
- There's no miniature / In her fair face, but is a copious theme / Which would, discoursed at large of, make a volume.1627, Philip Massinger, “The Great Duke of Florence”, in William Gifford, editor, The Plays of Philip Massinger, published 1845, act 5, scene 3, page 221
Adjective
miniature (comparative more miniature, superlative most miniature)
- Smaller than normal.
- I find miniature dogs annoying; they seem to yap more than full-size dogs.
- Scientists have grown miniature human brains in test tubes, creating a "tool" that will allow them to watch how the organs develop in the womb and, they hope, increase their understanding of neurological and mental problems. ¶ Just a few millimetres across, the "cerebral organoids" are built up of...2013 September 6, Alok Jha, “Miniature brains grown in lab”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 13, page 39
Verb
miniature (third-person singular simple present miniatures, present participle miniaturing, simple past and past participle miniatured)
- To make smaller than normal; to reproduce in miniature.
- If it be ever so little removed, or seen thro’ the miniaturing End of the Perspective Glass, it either wholly escapes their Sight, or appears to them a mere Minutity.1755, John Shebbeare, An Answer to a Pamphlet, called A Second Letter to the People, London: M. Cooper, page 29
- The smile of the babe was in my eye, and in my heart. I saw miniatur’d forth, the features of the murdered Edward.1780, Samuel Jackson Pratt, Emma Corbett, Bath: Pratt and Clinch, Volume 2, Letter 67, p. ,101
miniature meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
miniature in Tamil
- குள்ளம்
miniature in Urdu
- نقاشی کوچک
miniature in Bengali
- ক্ষুদ্র চিত্র, ক্ষুদ্র প্রতিরূপ, ক্ষুদ্র, ক্ষুদ্রকায়, সূক্ষ্ম
miniature in Malayalam
- മറ്റൊന്നിൻറെ വലിപ്പം കുറഞ്ഞരൂപം, ചെറിയ ചിത്രം, ഹ്രസ്വരൂപം
More languagesFewer languages
- miniature in Kannada
- ಚಿತ್ರಾಲಂಕೃತ ಹಸ್ತಪ್ರತಿಯಲ್ಲಿರುವ ಚಿತ್ರಗಳು, ಚಿಕಣಿಚಿತ್ರ, ಕಿರುಚಿತ್ರ, ಚಿಕಣಿ ಚಿತ್ರಕಲೆ
- miniature in Arabic
- مُنَمْنَمَة munamnama
Examples of miniature in a sentence
- […] a moon holds its gray glories miniatured in rock and dust.1968, Samuel R. Delany, chapter 5, in Nova, New York: Doubleday:
- Dad had had Lily’s Haiti photos developed, and […] among them was a sunset miniatured in purple […]2009, Helen Oyeyemi, White Is for Witching, New York: Nan A. Talese, pages 98-99:
Forms of miniature
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | miniatures |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more miniature |
| superlative | most miniature |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | miniatures |
| present participle | miniaturing |
| past participle | miniatured |
| past | miniatured |
Origin of miniature
Borrowed from Italian miniatura (“manuscript illumination”), from miniare (“to illuminate”), from Latin miniō (“to colour red”), from minium (“red lead, minium”). Not related to minimum, minor or min (which are all from a different root, *mi-n-), though the sense development may have been influenced by association with them or sound symbolism.
Words formed from miniature
Phrases with miniature
Questions about miniature
- What does miniature mean?
- Miniature means greatly diminished size or form; reduced scale.
- What is miniature in Tamil?
- Miniature in Tamil is குள்ளம். See Miniature meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use miniature in a sentence?
- […] a moon holds its gray glories miniatured in rock and dust.
- What part of speech is miniature?
- Miniature can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce miniature?
- Miniature is pronounced /ˈmɪn.ɪ.tʃə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of miniature?
- The plural of miniature is miniatures.
Words near miniature in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: miniature (page history and authors); miniature (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); miniature (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); miniature (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); miniature (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); miniature (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-miniature.wav.
Cite this entry: “miniature.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/miniature. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.