little

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See also a little

English

Etymology

From Middle English litel, from Old English lȳtel, from Proto-Germanic *lūtilaz (“tending to stoop, crouched, little”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewd- (“to bend, bent, small”), equivalent to lout +‎ -le. Cognate with Dutch luttel, German lütt and lützel, West Frisian lyts, Low German lütt, Old High German luzzil, Middle High German lützel, Old English lūtan; and perhaps to Old English lytig (“deceitful, lot deceit”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍄𐍃 (liuts, “deceitful”), 𐌻𐌿𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (lutjan, “to deceive”); compare also Icelandic lítill (“little”), Swedish liten, Danish liden, lille, Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃 (leitils), which appear to have a different root vowel. More at lout.

Pronunciation

Adjective

little (comparative less, lesser or littler, superlative least or littlest)

  1. Small in size.
    This is a little table.
  2. Insignificant, trivial.
    It's of little importance.
  3. Very young.
    Did he tell you any embarrassing stories about when she was little?
    That's the biggest little boy I've ever seen.
  4. (of a sibling) Younger.
    This is my little sister.
  5. Used with the name of place, especially of a country, to denote a neighborhood whose residents or storekeepers are from that place.
    • 1871 October 18, The One-eyed Philosopher [pseudonym], "Street Corners", in Judy: or the London serio-comic journal, volume 9, page 255 [1]:
      If you want to find Little France, take any turning on the north side of Leicester square, and wander in a zigzag fashion Oxford Streetwards. The Little is rather smokier and more squalid than the Great France upon the other side of the Manche.
    • 2004, Barry Miles, Zappa: A Biography, 2005 edition, ISBN 080214215X, page 5:
      In the forties, hurdy-gurdy men could still be heard in all those East Coast cities with strong Italian neighbourhoods: New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. A visit to Baltimore's Little Italy at that time was like a trip to Italy itself.
  6. Small in amount or number, having few members.
    little money
    little herd

Usage notes

Some authorities regard both littler and littlest as non-standard. The OED says of the word little: "the adjective has no recognized mode of comparison. The difficulty is commonly evaded by resort to a synonym (as smaller, smallest); some writers have ventured to employ the unrecognized forms littler, littlest, which are otherwise confined to dialect or imitations of childish or illiterate speech." The forms lesser and least are encountered in animal names such as lesser flamingo and least weasel.

Antonyms

Translations

small in size
Insignificant, trivial
very young
(of a sibling) younger
small in number, few
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Adverb

little (comparative less or lesser, superlative least)

  1. not much
    This is a little known fact.
    She spoke little and listened less.
    • 2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd”, BBC Sport:
      But as United saw the game out, little did they know that, having looked likely to win their 13th Premier League title, it was City who turned the table to snatch glory from their arch-rivals' grasp.

Antonyms

Translations

not much

Determiner

little (comparative less, superlative least)

  1. Not much, only a little: only a small amount (of).
    There is little water left.
    We had very little to do.

Usage notes

  • Little is used with uncountable nouns, few with plural countable nouns.

Antonyms

Translations

small amount

Related terms

Statistics

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Last modified on 21 May 2013, at 18:10