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minute

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

A particular point in time.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

minuht

Say the bold part a little louder.

noun: minitadjective: mynoot

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmɪnət

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. informal

    A short but unspecified time period.

  2. informal

    An indefinitely short time

  3. A particular point in time

  4. A point in time; a moment.

  5. Distance measured by the time taken to cover it

  6. A unit of purchase on a telephone or other similar network, especially a cell phone network, roughly equivalent in gross form to sixty seconds' use of the network.

adjective

  1. Very careful and exact, giving small details.

verb

  1. To set down a short sketch or note of; to jot down; to make a minute or a brief summary of.

  2. transitive

    Of an event, to write in a memo or the minutes of a meeting.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A short but unspecified time period.

Used this way, minute is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Casual
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Playful
Usage feel
Casual and conversational

Where it naturally appears

  • Everyday conversation
  • Social media/informal writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use minute

  • “He ran a 4 minute mile.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

last minuteminute bookminute detailminute walk

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • minutesnounPlural form

    A written account of what transpired at a meeting.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • minute steaknounCompound term

    A thin steak that can be cooked quickly.

  • minute of arcnounCompound term

    A unit of angular distance equal to a 60th of a degree.

  • minute handnounCompound term

    Points to the minutes.

  • minute gunnounCompound term

    Gun that is discharged once every minute (usually as part of a military funeral).

  • minute booknounCompound term

    A book in which minutes have been written.

  • count per minutenounCompound term

    Frequency per minute.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: short but unspecified time period

secondinstant

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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.