diminish
verb
Simple meaning
To become smaller or less important.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihminishSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈmɪnɪʃ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To make appear smaller than in reality; to dismiss as unimportant.
intransitive
To become less or smaller.
Lessen the authority, dignity, or reputation of
transitive
To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken; to nerf (in gaming).
transitive
To take away; to subtract.
intransitive
To taper.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To make appear smaller than in reality; to dismiss as unimportant.
Used this way, diminish is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Diminished in size or strength as a result of disease or injury or lack of use.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An arch whose height is less than half its width.
A law affirming that to continue after a certain level of performance has been reached will result in a decline in effectiveness.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “diminish” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.