different between trivial vs small

English

Alternative forms

• triviall (obsolete)

Etymology

• From Latin trivi?lis (“appropriate to the street-corner, commonplace, vulgar”), from trivium (“place where three roads meet”). Compare trivium, trivia.
• From the distinction between trivium (“the lower division of the liberal arts; grammar, logic and rhetoric”) and quadrivium (“the higher division of the seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages, composed of geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t??.vi.?l/

Adjective

trivial (comparative more trivial, superlative most trivial)

1. Ignorable; of little significance or value.
   • 1848, Thackeray, William Makepeace, Vanity Fair, Bantam Classics (1997), 16:

     "All which details, I have no doubt, Jones, who reads this book at his Club, will pronounce to be excessively foolish, trivial, twaddling, and ultra-sentimental."
2. Commonplace, ordinary.
   • 1842, Thomas De Quincey, Cicero (published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine)

     As a scholar, meantime, he was trivial, and incapable of labour.

3. Concerned with or involving trivia.
4. (taxonomy) Relating to or designating the name of a species; specific as opposed to generic.
5. (mathematics) Of, relating to, or being the simplest possible case.
6. (mathematics) Self-evident.
7. Pertaining to the trivium.
8. (philosophy) Indistinguishable in case of truth or falsity.

Synonyms

• (of little significance): ignorable, negligible, trifling

Antonyms

• nontrivial
• important
• significant
• radical
• fundamental

Derived terms

• trivia

Translations

Noun

trivial (plural trivials)

1. (obsolete) Any of the three liberal arts forming the trivium.
   • c. 1521, John Skelton, “Speke Parott”:

     Tryuyals, & quatryuyals, ?o ?ore now they appayre
     That Parrot the Popagay, hath pytye to beholde
     How the re?t of good lernyng, is roufled vp & trold

References

trivial in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• vitrail

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /t?i.vi?al/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /t?i.bi?al/

Adjective

trivial (masculine and feminine plural trivials)

1. trivial

Further reading

• “trivial” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?i.vjal/
• Homophones: triviale, triviales

Adjective

trivial (feminine singular triviale, masculine plural triviaux, feminine plural triviales)

1. trivial (common, easy, obvious)
2. ordinary, mundane
3. colloquial (language)

Derived terms

• nom trivial

Further reading

• “trivial” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• livrait, vitrail

Galician

Adjective

trivial m or f (plural triviais)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Derived terms

• trivialidade
• trivialmente

German

Etymology

Borrowed from French trivial, from Latin trivi?lis (“common”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?ivi?a?l/
• Rhymes: -a?l

Adjective

trivial (comparative trivialer, superlative am trivialsten)

1. trivial (common, easy, obvious)

Declension

Related terms

• trivialisieren
• Trivialität

Further reading

• “trivial” in Duden online

Piedmontese

Adjective

trivial

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /t?ivi?aw/
• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /t?i?vja?/

Adjective

trivial m or f (plural triviais, comparable)

1. trivial

Derived terms

• trivialidade
• trivializar
• trivialmente

Further reading

• “trivial” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913

Romanian

Etymology

From French trivial.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tri.vi?al/

Adjective

trivial m or n (feminine singular trivial?, masculine plural triviali, feminine and neuter plural triviale)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Declension

Derived terms

• trivialitate
• trivializa

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?i?bjal/, [t??i???jal]
• Hyphenation: tri?vial

Adjective

trivial (plural triviales)

1. trivial

Derived terms

• trivialidad
• trivializar
• trivialmente

Further reading

• “trivial” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

English

Pronunciation

• (UK)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sm??l/
• • Rhymes: -??l
• (US)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /sm?l/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /sm?l/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /sm?l/
• (General Australian, General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /smo?l/

Etymology

From Middle English smal, from Old English smæl (“small, narrow, slender”), from Proto-Germanic *smalaz (“small”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mal-, *(s)mel- (“small, mean, malicious”). Cognate with Scots smal; sma (“small”); West Frisian smel (“narrow”); Dutch smal (“narrow”); German schmal (“narrow, small”); Danish, Norwegian, Swedish smal (“narrow; thin; slender”); Latin malus (“bad”); Russian ?????? (mályj, “small”).

Adjective

small (comparative smaller, superlative smallest)

1. Not large or big; insignificant; few in number.

2. (figuratively) Young, as a child.

3. (writing, incomparable) Minuscule or lowercase, referring to written or printed letters.
4. Envincing little worth or ability; not large-minded; paltry; mean.
   • 1851, Thomas Carlyle, The Life of John Sterling

     A true delineation of the smallest man is capable of interesting the greatest man.

5. Not prolonged in duration; not extended in time; short.

6. (archaic) Slender, gracefully slim.

Synonyms

• (not large or big): little, microscopic, minuscule, minute, tiny; see also Thesaurus:tiny
• (young, as a child): little, wee (Scottish), young
• (of written letters): lowercase, minuscule

Antonyms

• See also Thesaurus:large
• (not large or big): capital, big, generous (said of an amount of something given), large
• (young, as a child): adult, grown-up, old
• (of written letters): big, capital, majuscule, uppercase

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

small (comparative smaller, superlative smallest)

1. In a small fashion. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
2. In or into small pieces.
   • 2009, Ingrid Hoffman, CBS Early Morning for September 28, 2009 (transcription)

     That's going to go in there. We've got some chives small chopped as well.

3. (obsolete) To a small extent.
4. (obsolete) In a low tone; softly.

Derived terms

• writ small

Noun

small (plural smalls)

1. (rare) Any part of something that is smaller or slimmer than the rest, now usually with anatomical reference to the back.

Derived terms

• small of the back

Verb

small (third-person singular simple present smalls, present participle smalling, simple past and past participle smalled)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make little or less.
2. (intransitive) To become small; to dwindle.
   • 1917, Thomas Hardy, The Clock of the Years

     And smalled till she was nought at all.

Anagrams

• malls

Icelandic

Verb

small (strong)

1. first-person singular past indicative of smella
2. third-person singular past indicative of smella

Low German

Etymology

From Middle Low German smal, from Old Saxon smal, from Proto-Germanic *smalaz. Cognate with German schmal, Dutch smal, English small.

Adjective

small (comparative smaller, superlative smallst)

1. narrow
2. small, slender

Declension

Middle English

Adjective

small

1. Alternative form of smal

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

small

1. (non-standard since 2005) past tense of smelle

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

small

1. past tense of smella

Swedish

Verb

small

1. past tense of smälla.

Anagrams

• malls