diminutive

Other forms of diminutive

plural

diminutives·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about diminutive

What does diminutive mean?

diminutive means "a word that is formed with a suffix (such as -let or -kin) to indicate smallness". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in diminutive?

diminutive has 4 syllables: di-min-u-tive. The stress falls on "min". In IPA it is /dɪˈmɪnjətɪv/.

What is another word for diminutive?

Close synonyms include bantam, lilliputian, midget, petite, tiny. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is diminutive a common word?

diminutive is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.