diminished

«diminished» in Mova's school dictionary: made smaller, fewer or weaker — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (diminished); verb, past form of "diminish" (diminish, diminishes, diminished, diminishing)

meaning for a pupil

1) Diminished means made smaller, fewer or weaker. tree →

2) (formal) To be diminished is to become less important or less respected. tree →

3) (music) A diminished chord or interval is a little smaller than the usual one. tree →

sense in the lessons

In formal maths and science texts "diminished by" means "made smaller by" or "minus": "20 diminished by 5". It describes things that shrink: a diminished supply, diminished light. In stories it shows weakness or loss. Phrases: diminished by, diminished returns, greatly diminished.

examples

• The pile of sweets had diminished by lunchtime. tree →
• 20 diminished by 5 is 15. tree →
• The noise diminished as the train went away. tree →
• His strength had diminished after the long illness. tree →
• Light diminished as the sun set. tree →
• The water in the tank diminished by a third. tree →
• Her fear diminished once she saw the friendly dog. tree →
• The play uses a diminished chord to sound spooky. tree →
• Goll could do a thing that would be hard for another person, and he could do it so beautifully that he was not diminished by any action. tree →

note

Formal; everyday words are "got smaller", "shrank", "went down". In maths, "a number diminished by 7" means the number minus 7 (n - 7). Trap: "diminished to 7" means it became 7, not minus 7. Noun: a diminution (formal).

In the corpora

• Go yourselves, get you straw where ye can find it; for nought of your work shall be diminished.'
• Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished; but he that gathereth little by little shall increase.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «diminished» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.