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minutiae

[mi-noo-shee-uh, -shuh, -nyoo-]

Example Sentences Origin

noun, plural -ti·ae

[-shee-ee] .

Usually, minutiae. precise details; small or trifling matters: the minutiae of his craft.

Origin:
1745–55; < Latin minūtia smallness, equivalent to minūt(us) minute² + -ia -ia

Related forms

mi·nu·ti·al, adjective

Can be confused: minimal, minimize, minimum, minuscule, minutia (see usage note at minuscule).

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Minutiae is always a great word to know.

So is ort. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

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Example Sentences

To call this minutiae seems an understatement.

There is no international consensus on the minutiae of diplomatic privilege.

In broad daylight, academics often try to ignore emotions and focus on minutiae.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

minutiae (mɪˈnjuːʃɪˌiː)

—*pl n* , sing -tia
	small, precise, or trifling details

[C18: pl of Late Latin minūtia smallness, from Latin minūtusminute²]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

minutia

1751, pl. minutiæ, from L. minutia "smallness" (pl. minutiæ, in L.L. "trifles"), from minutus "small" (see minute (adj.)).

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minutiae

1751, pl. of L. minutia "smallness" (see minutia); hence, "trifles."

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"Such is the art of writing as Dreiser understands it and practices it—an endless piling up of minutiae, an almost ferocious tracking down of ions, electrons and molecules, an unshakable determination to tell it all. One is amazed by the mole-like diligence of the man, and no less by his exasperating disregard for the ease of his readers."

-H.L. Mencken

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