minutia

noun

mi·nu·tia mə-ˈnü-sh(ē-)ə

mī-,

-ˈnyü-

plural minutiae mə-ˈnü-shē-ˌē

-ˌī,

mī-,

-ˈnyü-,

-sh(ē-)ə

: a minute or minor detail

—usually used in plural

He was bewildered by the contract's minutiae.

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Minutia Has Latin Roots

Minutia was borrowed into English in the 18th century from the Latin plural noun minutiae, meaning "trifles" or "details," and derived from the singular noun minutia, meaning "smallness." In English, minutia is most often used in the plural as either minutiae (pronounced \muh-NOO-shee-ee) or, on occasion, as simply minutia. The Latin minutia, incidentally, comes from minutus, an adjective meaning "small" that was created from the verb minuere, meaning "to lessen." A familiar descendant of minutus is minute.

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How to Pronounce Minutia and Minutiae

Minutiae, we’ve established, is the plural of minutia and also far more common in prose than the singular minutia. There is, however, confusion over the pronunciation of both the singular and the plural, and the confusion may be leading some to use the singular minutia where the plural minutiae is called for. Minutia, the singular, is generally pronounced \muh-NOO-shee-uh\ or \muh-NOO-shuh\, and the plural minutiae should be properly pronounced \muh-NOO-shee-ee\. But transcripts of spoken English show that this is not always adhered to: minutia shows up in transcribed speech far more often than it does in edited writing, and usually in places where one would expect minutiae. This leads us to believe that the pronunciation of minutiae is merging with the pronunciation of minutia, or that minutia is being re-analyzed as a zero plural.

Examples of minutia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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Think of him as the David Fincher of the fantastical: every production detail accounted for, every bit of minutiae in the frame serving its purpose. —

Scott Phillips, Forbes, 23 Dec. 2024 Thursday’s event – an annual display of Putin’s mastery of the minutiae of domestic policy as well as of geopolitics – consists of a public Q&A session combined with a public phone-in. —

Anna Chernova, CNN, 19 Dec. 2024 Even then, Giovanni was concerned with the tender minutiae of Black American experiences, and her poetry celebrated some of the everyday pleasures that make resilience feel possible. —

Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 11 Dec. 2024 The Kendrick Lamar-Drake feud that ensued has been litigated endlessly, to the point where there isn’t much else interesting to say about its song-by-song minutiae or its beat-by-beat time line. —

Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2024 See all Example Sentences for minutia