Word.ws English Dictionary

minim

/ˈmɪ.nɪm/

minim noun: a half note, drawn as a semibreve with a stem.

minim: a half note, drawn as a semibreve with a stem
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

minim (plural minims)

  1. A half note, drawn as a semibreve with a stem.
  2. A unit of volume, in the Imperial and U.S. customary systems, ¹⁄₆₀ fluid drachm. Approximately equal to 1 drop, 62 μL or 0.9 grain (weight) of water.
    • He thanked me with a smiling nod, measured out a few minims of the red tincture and added one of the powders.1886, Robert Louis Stephenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
  3. A short vertical stroke used in handwriting.
  4. Anything very minute; applied to animalcula and the like.
    • the minims of existence
  5. The smallest kind of worker in a leaf-cutter ant colony.
  6. A little man or being; a dwarf.
    • These as a line thir^([sic]) long dimension drew,
      Streaking the ground with sinuous trace;
      not all Minims of Nature; some of Serpent kinde
      Wondrous in length and corpulence […]1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker...
  7. A small fish; a minnow.
  8. A short poetical encomium.
    • To make one minim of thy poor handmaid1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Noun (2) capitalized: Minim

Minim (plural Minims or Minimi)

  1. A member of a Roman Catholic religious order of friars founded by Saint Francis of Paola in fifteenth-century Italy.

minim meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Arabic

minim in Hindi

half note
अर्धमात्रिक ardhamātrik

minim in Tamil

திரவ அளவில் ஒரு சிற்றலகு, துளி, அளவில் மிகக் குறைந்தது, சிறியது, சொற்ப, அற்ப அளவு

minim in Urdu

قطرہ

minim in Arabic

half note
بَيْضَاء bayḍāʔ
More languagesFewer languages
minim in Vietnamese
nốt trắng

Forms of minim

pluralminims
alternative formminom
alternative formminum
pluralMinims
pluralMinimi

Origin of minim

Borrowed from French minime.

See minimum (“least”); so called to humble them even below the Franciscans, or "friars minor".

Words formed from minim

Phrases with minim

Questions about minim

What does minim mean?
Minim means a half note, drawn as a semibreve with a stem.
What is minim in Hindi?
Minim in Hindi is अर्धमात्रिक (ardhamātrik). See Minim meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is minim?
Minim is a noun.
How do you pronounce minim?
Minim is pronounced /ˈmɪ.nɪm/.
What is the plural of minim?
The plural of minim is minims.

Words near minim in the dictionary

  1. minilexicons
  2. miniloan
  3. miniloans
  4. miniloci
  5. minilocus
  6. minim
  7. minim confusion
  8. minim rest
  9. minim rests
  10. minima
  11. minima naturalia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: minim (page history and authors); Minim (page history and authors); minim (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); minim (Urdu 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-minim.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-JutishMale-minim.wav.

Cite this entry: “minim.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/minim. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.