diminished

1. 1
   adjective

   Made less in size, amount, degree, or strength than it was before.

   The charity operated on a diminished budget after donations dropped.

   Her diminished hearing meant she relied more on lip reading.

   Similarreduced, lessened, weakened, impaired

   Oppositeenhanced

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of diminish.

   Sales diminished sharply once the novelty wore off.

   The medicine had diminished her pain by the next morning.

   Note

   One spelling serves two jobs, and diminish itself works both ways: it can make something smaller, or simply become smaller. With the first meaning, the participle builds passives (the light was diminished by fog). With the second, it builds only perfects (the noise had diminished by dawn). Once it can take more or most, it has crossed into the adjective meaning "reduced".

3. 3
   adjective

   Made to seem less important, impressive, or valuable than is truly the case, often through another's words or actions.

   He left the meeting feeling diminished after his ideas were dismissed.

   Her achievements looked diminished beside the relentless hype around her rival.

   Similardeflated, humbled, overshadowed

   Oppositeenhanced, elevated

   Note

   Here the loss is in standing, not in size. Nothing has actually shrunk, but someone has been made to look or feel smaller. The word most often follows feel or look, with by naming the cause: she felt diminished by the report card. That sets it apart from the measurable "reduced" sense, where a budget or an empire really is smaller.

4. 4
   adjective

   In music, lowered by a semitone, as an interval or chord.

   The composer resolved the phrase out of a diminished chord for dramatic effect.

   A diminished fifth spans six semitones and feels strikingly unstable.

   Oppositeaugmented

   Note

   A music theorist's word with two related uses. An interval is diminished when it is a semitone narrower than a minor or perfect one, so a perfect fifth narrows into a diminished fifth. A chord is diminished when it is built by stacking minor thirds, as in the diminished seventh. Either way the sound is unstable and full of tension, and it usually resolves outward to a steadier harmony.

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