minutia
mi·nu·ti·a/maɪ̯ˈn(j)uːʃ(iː)ə/noun
minutia is spelled M-I-N-U-T-I-A: 7 letters and 4 syllables (mi·nu·ti·a). It appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 92,628th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, minutia means “A minor detail, often of negligible importance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of minutia is minutiae; Wiktionary also lists minutiæ (obsolete).
How many letters and syllables are in minutia?
| Letters | 7: M-I-N-U-T-I-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: mi·nu·ti·a |
| In writing | about once in every 10 million words; the 92,628th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is minutia?
Minutia appears about once in every 10 million words in written English, the 92,628th 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 minutia?
- /maɪ̯ˈn(j)uːʃ(iː)ə/
- /məˈn(j)uːʃ(iː)ə/
Minutia has 4 syllables, split mi·nu·ti·a in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-minutia.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of minutia
- minutiae plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does minutia mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A minor detail, often of negligible importance.
They spent all their time on minutiae, never making real progress.
- 2
Any of the point features on fingerprints used for matching, usually endings and bifurcations of ridges.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Minutia in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense minor detail:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | petit détail |
| German | Detail, Einzelheit, winziges Detail, Kleinigkeit, Nebensächlichkeit |
| Spanish | mezquindad, minucia |
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 minutia come from?
Borrowed from Latin minutia, from minūtus (“small, little”), from minuō (“make smaller”). By surface analysis, minute + -ia.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).