as in nominal
so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention
from his perspective as a billionaire, what the governor got paid was a piffling amount
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for piffling
Adjective
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Here’s why: Although technical specifications are still being worked out, the new standard could deliver nominal peak data rates of more than 40Gbps.—
PCMAG,
PCMAG,
20 Mar. 2025 -
According to expert estimates, India needs to spend around $100 billion per year, or 2.8% of current nominal GDP, to achieve net-zero power sector emissions by 2070.—
Radhika Kak, independent researcher at Harvard Business School and Varad Pande, partner at BCG,
CNBC,
20 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Here, again, there were slight differences in the responses when broken down by party affiliation.—
Brendan Rascius,
Miami Herald,
20 Mar. 2025
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Like the inclusion of the new music, the omission of the prince storyline shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying even the slightest attention to the controversies plaguing the production of Snow White for the past few years.—
Tim Lammers,
Forbes,
20 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Mixed in with small pleasures and petty disputes with her older sister are true feats of survival and bravery.—
Lynette Rice,
Deadline,
22 Mar. 2025
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Gangs stop petty thievery in their own neighborhoods.—
Walter E Block,
Orange County Register,
22 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Then, the pandemic reduced the schedule to 60 games and Eddie got a piddling 37%.—
Star Tribune,
Star Tribune,
3 Dec. 2020
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Millions of additional claims are expected to stream in from around the country over the coming weeks, while hiring remains piddling.—
Patricia Cohen,
New York Times,
23 Apr. 2020
Adjective
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With that much water needed for even the most trifling tasks, the natural question becomes: How does that water reach those data centers, let alone the world’s farms and factories?—
IEEE Spectrum,
IEEE Spectrum,
28 May 2010
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And yet the movie’s insularity feels trifling and empty.—
David Rooney,
The Hollywood Reporter,
17 Feb. 2024
Adjective
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Plus, gone are the days of worrying about not having enough sink space in a tiny hotel bathroom.—
Hannah Freedman,
Travel + Leisure,
29 Mar. 2025
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Nearby in the tiny, no-stoplight community of Leslie, Arkansas, which gets water from the Ozark system, the only dentist in town operates out of a one-man clinic tucked in the back of an antique store.—
Brett Kelman,
CNN Money,
29 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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What’s at risk The impact of an output such as calling a blueberry muffin a chihuahua may seem trivial, but consider the different kinds of technologies that use image recognition systems: An autonomous vehicle that fails to identify objects could lead to a fatal traffic accident.—
Anna Choi,
The Conversation,
21 Mar. 2025
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The under-the-table payments at the center of the case, which involved sums of up to $100,000, now seem trivial in comparison to the rapidly escalating figures involved in today’s NIL economy.—
Daniel Libit,
Sportico.com,
13 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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That pipeline, now at the heart of the NS2 dispute, still carries Russian gas to Germany, yielding between $2 billion and $3 billion in annual transit fees for Ukraine – not an inconsiderable amount for an economy whose total gross domestic product was $154 billion in 2020.—
Fred Weir,
The Christian Science Monitor,
5 Aug. 2021
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For even very good students who can afford the not inconsiderable tuition, deciding which campuses to list on the UC application — each costs $70 — is less about personal preference and more about figuring out which one offers any hope of acceptance.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Apr. 2021
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Cite this Entry
“Piffling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/piffling. Accessed 3 Apr. 2025.
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