diminutive1 adjectivediminutive2 noun
diminutivedi‧min‧u‧tive1 /dəˈmɪnjətɪv/ adjective 
Word OriginWORD ORIGINdiminutive1
ExamplesOrigin:
1300-1400 French diminutif, from Latin minuere ‘to make less’EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- A diminutive figure appeared in the doorway.
- Brennan is a diminutive man with a quick smile.
- Peter was a shy, diminutive man who seldom said anything to anyone.
- And the weather, from one part of this diminutive island to another, is as varied as the people.
- But their diminutive size makes for fun eating.
- It suited her diminutive stature and delicate features.
- The diminutive guard from Arizona dominated the overtime, scoring 10 of the Raptors' 19 points.
- The diminutive Mr Dunne, who lived on the second floor of the hotel, was cordial in his way.
- The courtroom was the diminutive Carman's stage, where he played carefully to the jury with meticulously prepared gestures and phrases.
- Three wore the white coats of the back-room boffin, the fourth was diminutive, little more than a boy.
THESAURUSperson► short
Collocations someone who is short is not as tall as most people: · He was a short fat man.
► not very tall quite short. This phrase sounds more gentle than saying that someone is short: · She wasn’t very tall – maybe about 1.60 m.
► small short and with a small body: · My mother was a small woman.· The girl was quite small for her age (=smaller than other girls of the same age).
► petite used about a woman who is attractively short and thin: · She was a petite woman with blonde hair.
► stocky used about a boy or man who is short, heavy, and strong: · Harry was stocky and middle-aged.
► dumpy short and fat: · a dumpy girl with red hair
► diminutive formal literary very short or small – used especially in descriptions in novels: · a diminutive figure dressed in black
► stubby stubby fingers or toes are short and thick: · the baby’s stubby little fingers
Longman Language Activatorvery short► tiny · A tiny old lady answered the door.· She's tiny, but she belts out these old blues songs like you wouldn't believe.· They look so funny together. She's really tiny and her husband's about six foot five.tiny little informal · She was holding a tiny little baby in her arms.
► diminutive written unusually small and thin: · Peter was a shy, diminutive man who seldom said anything to anyone.· A diminutive figure appeared in the doorway.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN► size
small: · T'ai Cho was a tall man, more than five ch'i, his height emphasised by the diminutive size of the Clayborn child.· But their diminutive size makes for fun eating.· Their diminutive size makes them suitable for even the smallest, most overcrowded garden.· Halflings are excellent bowmen and stubborn fighters despite their rather diminutive size.· The diminutive size of the headstock suits the overall slender appearance of this guitar perfectly.· Build quality is excellent and, despite the diminutive size of all the controls, they are perfectly usable.
a shy diminutive man► see thesaurus at shortdiminutive1 adjectivediminutive2 noun
diminutivediminutive2 noun [countable] ExamplesEXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
word sets- Reaney also deals with other interesting varieties of surnames based on relationships - those formed from pet names and diminutives.
WORD SETS► Linguistics
a word formed by adding a diminutive suffixacronym, nounadage, nounaffricate, nounagglutination, nounalphanumeric, adjectiveanglophone, nounantecedent, nounantonym, nounaphorism, nounarchaism, nounargot, nounaspirate, verbaspirate, nounaspiration, nounassonance, nounbaby talk, nounback, adjectiveback formation, nounbilabial, nounbody language, nouncant, nouncliché, nouncognate, adjectivecognate, nouncollocate, verbcollocation, nouncolloquial, adjectivecombining form, nouncompound, nounconcordance, nounconnotation, nounconsonant, nouncontext, nouncontraction, nouncorpus, noundative, noundeclarative, adjectivedecline, verbdecode, verbdescriptive, adjectivediction, noundiminutive, noundiminutive suffix, noundiphthong, nounelide, verbellipsis, nounelocution, nounemphasis, nounencode, verbenunciate, verb-ese, suffixetymology, nouneuphemism, nouneuphemistic, adjectiveexpression, nounfigurative, adjectivefirst language, nounformal, adjectivefricative, noungender, nounglide, nounglottal stop, nounhard, adjectivehieroglyphics, nounhigh-level, adjectivehomograph, nounhomonym, nounhomophone, nounhyperbole, nounideogram, nounidiolect, nounidiom, nounidiomatic, adjectiveinflection, nounintonation, nounIPA, nounironic, adjectivejargon, nounlabial, nounlanguage, nounlegalese, nounlexical, adjectivelexicography, nounlexicon, nounlexis, nounlingua franca, nounlinguist, nounlinguistic, adjectivelinguistics, nounlip-read, verbloanword, nounlocution, nounlong, adjectivemaxim, nounmetalanguage, nounmispronounce, verbmnemonic, nounmonosyllabic, adjectivemonosyllable, nounmorpheme, nounmorphology, nounnasal, adjectivenasal, nounneologism, nounneutral, adjectivenonce, adjectivenon-standard, adjectivenonverbal, adjectiveofficialese, nounonomatopoeia, nounopen vowel, nounorientalist, nounoxymoron, nounpalindrome, nounparagraph, nounparaphrase, verbparaphrase, nounphilology, nounphoneme, nounphonemics, nounphonetic, adjectivephonetics, nounphonic, adjectivephonology, nounphrasal, adjectivephraseology, nounpidgin, nounplosive, nounpolyglot, adjectivepolysemous, adjectivepolysyllabic, adjectiveportmanteau word, nounpragmatics, nounpreliterate, adjectivepre-verbal, adjectiveprimary stress, nounpronounce, verbpronounceable, adjectivepronunciation, nounproverb, nounpsychobabble, nounReceived Pronunciation, nounrecitation, nounregister, nounretroflex, adjectiveRP, nounschwa, nounsecondary stress, nounsecond language, nounsemantic, adjectivesemantics, nounsemiotics, nounsemi-vowel, nounshort, adjectivesibilant, adjectivesibilant, nounsic, adverbsilent, adjectivesimile, nounslang, nounsound, verbspeech, nounspeech therapy, nounspell, verbspelling, nounspoonerism, nounstandard, adjectivestem, nounstop, nounstress, nounstress, verbstressed, adjectivestress mark, nounstructuralism, nounstylistics, nounsuperlative, nounsyllabic, adjectivesyllable, nounsynonym, nounsynonymous, adjectivetechnical, adjectiveterminology, nounthesaurus, nountone, nountone language, nountoneless, adjectivetongue, nountranscribe, verbtranscription, nountrope, noununpronounceable, adjectiveunstressed, adjectiveunvoiced, adjectiveusage, nounuse, verbuse, nounvelar, adjectivevocabulary, nounvoiceless, adjectivevowel, noun