little

Meanings

Adjective

• Small in size.
• Insignificant, trivial.
• Very young.
• Younger.
• Having few members.
• Operating on a small scale.
• Short in duration; brief.
• Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow; shallow; contracted; mean; illiberal; ungenerous.

Adverb

• Not much.
• Not at all.

Pronoun

• Not much; not a large amount.

Noun

• A small amount.
• The participant in ageplay who acts out the younger role.
• A newly initiated member of a sorority.

Related

Opposite words

• large, big
• big
• much

Origin

• From Middle English litel, from Old English lȳtel, from Proto-West Germanic *lūtil, 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, regional German lütt and lützel, West Frisian lyts, Low German lütt, Old High German luzzil, Middle High German lützel, Old English lutan ("to bow, bend low"); and perhaps to Old English lytig ("deceitful, lot deceit"), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍄𐍃 ("deceitful"), 𐌻𐌿𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽; compare also Icelandic lítill ("little"), Swedish liten, Danish liden, lille, Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌹𐌻𐍃, which appear to have a different root vowel. More at lout.