minimum

«minimum» in Mova's school dictionary: The smallest amount, number or level possible or allowed — 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

noun (a minimum, minimums or minima); adjective

meaning for a pupil

1) The smallest amount, number or level possible or allowed. tree →

2) (adjective) Being the smallest possible or allowed: "the minimum age". tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths: the minimum is the lowest value in a set; "at least" means the minimum. In safety: minimum age, minimum height for a ride. Phrases: at a minimum, keep to a minimum, bare minimum, minimum wage.

examples

• The minimum temperature last night was 2 °C. tree →
• You must be a minimum of 120 cm tall for this ride. tree →
• Keep noise to a minimum in the library. tree →
• Find the minimum value in the list: 7, 3, 9, 5. It is 3. tree →
• He did the bare minimum of homework. tree →
• The minimum number of players is four. tree →

note

Plural: minimums (everyday) or minima (science). Short form: min. Opposite: maximum. Maths: "a minimum of 5" means 5 or more (≥ 5). In statistics, range = maximum − minimum.

In the corpora

• The minimum payment barely covers the interest, so paying only the minimum keeps a debt going for years.
• The minimum wage is the lowest pay per hour the law allows; raising it gives workers more but raises costs for businesses.

Trees and pragmatics

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