minute
/ˈmɪnɪt/noun, verb, adjective
minute is spelled M-I-N-U-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is mintue: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 92 of all searches for the word. Minute is a noun meaning “A unit of time which is one sixtieth of an hour (sixty seconds)”. The plural of minute is minutes.
How many letters and syllables are in minute?
| Letters | 6: M-I-N-U-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 95 times per million words; the 1,125th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, mintue, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell minute?
Minute is spelled M-I-N-U-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 91 of the searches for minute in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is minute?
Minute appears 95 times per million words in written English, the 1,125th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce minute?
- /ˈmɪnɪt/
As an adjective (“Very small”): [maɪ̯ˈnjuːt], [maɪ̯ˈnjʊwt], [maɪ̯ˈn(j)u̟(ː)t].
Minute has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-a_minute.ogg, En-us-minute-noun.ogg, En-us-minute-adjective.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with minute?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as minute.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: minuet.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of minute
- minutes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- minuting participle, present
- minuted participle, past
- minuter comparative
- more minute comparative
- minutest superlative
- most minute superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does minute mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A unit of time which is one sixtieth of an hour (sixty seconds).
Holonyms: hectosecond < kilosecond < hour < day < week < megasecond < fortnight < month < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond < giga-annum, gigayear < exasecond < ze
- 2
informalA short but unspecified time period.
give me a minute
- 3
A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a degree.
We need to be sure these maps are accurate to within one minute of arc.
- 4
A (usually formal) written record of a meeting or a part of a meeting.
Let’s look at the minutes of last week’s meeting.
- 5
A unit of purchase on a telephone or other similar network, especially a cell phone network, roughly equivalent in gross form to sixty seconds' use of the network.
If you buy this model, you’ll get 100 free minutes.
- 6
A point in time; a moment.
I conked out the minute I got home.
- 7
A nautical or a geographic mile.
- 8
An old coin, a half farthing.
verb
- 1
Of an event, to write in a memo or the minutes of a meeting.
I’ll minute this evening’s meeting.
- 2
To set down a short sketch or note of; to jot down; to make a minute or a brief summary of.
adjective
- 1
Very small.
They found only minute quantities of chemical residue on his clothing.
- 2
Very careful and exact, giving small details.
The lawyer gave the witness a minute examination.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate minute?
Wiktionary records 3 abbreviations of minute: m, min, min..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Minute in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | minute , moment, instant , procès-verbal , minuscule , minutieux |
| German | Minute , Moment , Protokoll , winzig , protokollieren, aufzeichnen |
| Portuguese | minuto , instante, momento , ata , fazer a ata, escrever a ata |
| Spanish | minuto , momento , acta , diminuto, menudo , minutar |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does minute come from?
From Middle English mynute, minute, mynet, from Old French minute, from Medieval Latin minūta (“60th of an hour; note”). Doublet of menu and menudo.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).