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noun

diminutive

a word that is formed with a suffix (such as ‘-let’ or ‘-kin’) to indicate smallness

In a sentence

Six example sentences with diminutive, each labelled with its topic.

  • Russian novels exhaust translators because each character answers to a diminutive whose ending turns a formal name into something small and affectionate.

    Literature

  • Neapolitan menus are full of diminutives, so a bite-sized pastry gets an ending that tells you it arrives three to a plate.

    Travel

  • The screenwriter gave the giant bodyguard a diminutive for a nickname, and the joke lands every time someone calls him that.

    Movies

  • A sonatina carries a diminutive in its very name, telling the pianist that a small sonata is coming.

    Music

  • The emperor Caligula's name began as a diminutive: soldiers nicknamed the boy in tiny army boots 'little boot'.

    History

  • The cortical homunculus takes its name from a Latin diminutive meaning little man, a map of the body drawn on the brain.

    Psychology

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Found in these word lists

Found in 3 published word listsRecognized

Each source is a published word list that contains diminutive. No exam board publishes an official GRE, GMAT or SAT list; GMAT words come from GRE lists and the Academic Word List.

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