minimum
- 1The smallest amount, number or degree of something that is possible, needed or allowed; the lowest limit something cannot go below.
The recipe calls for a minimum of two hours of chilling.
She kept her expenses to a minimum during the long trip.
UsageOften a minimum of + an amount. Set phrases: keep something to a minimum; do the minimum (just enough, said critically).
- 2Used before a noun: being the smallest or lowest in amount, degree, or extent, as in the minimum age or a minimum charge.
Applicants must meet the minimum age requirement of eighteen.
Keep the room at the minimum temperature needed to prevent the pipes from freezing.
UsageUsually before a noun (minimum age). After a verb, minimal is more natural: the risk was minimal.
Similarminimal
Oppositemaximum
- 3In statistics, the lowest value in a set of sampled data, or the bound below which a probability distribution does not extend.
The sample minimum was the coldest reading taken that week.
Analysts reported the minimum alongside the median and the maximum.
Oppositemaximum
Note
Statistics uses the word for two related things. The sample minimum is the smallest value actually observed, also called the first order statistic, and it shifts from one sample to the next. The minimum of a distribution is the lowest value the variable can take at all, and some distributions, such as the normal, have none. Summaries often report the sample minimum alongside the quartiles, the median and the maximum.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- The sample minimum is the smallest observation and the first order statistic. en.wikipedia.org
- The sample minimum varies between samples. itl.nist.gov
- A distribution's minimum is its lower bound. en.wiktionary.org
- The normal distribution has no minimum. itl.nist.gov
- Statistical summaries include the sample minimum, quartiles, median and maximum. openstax.org
- 4In mathematics, the smallest value a function attains, either across its entire domain or near some point, or the point at which it attains that value.
The function x² − 4x reaches its minimum at x = 2.
Training algorithms can settle into local minima that are far from the best possible solution.
UsagePlural usually minima in mathematical writing (local minima), though minimums also occurs.
Oppositemaximum
Note
Calculus draws a line inside this sense: a local minimum is lowest among nearby points, while a global minimum is lowest over the whole domain, and one point can be both.
Less common meanings
- 5A lower bound of a set that is also a member of that set.
Like the bottom step of a staircase: it's the lowest point, and it's still a step.
The minimum of a closed interval is its left endpoint.
A set with no smallest element has no minimum.
Oppositemaximum
Note
Mathematicians draw a fine line here. A set has a minimum only when its lower bound is one of its own members, so the bound is actually reached. The closed interval from 0 to 1 has minimum 0. The open interval has a greatest lower bound, its infimum, which is also 0, but it has no minimum, because 0 is not inside it. Every minimum is an infimum, but not every infimum is a minimum.
Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- A minimum is a lower bound that belongs to the set. sc-mi.univ-batna2.dz
- The closed interval [0,1] has minimum 0. math.bu.edu
- The open interval (0,1) has infimum 0 but no minimum because it excludes 0. en.wikipedia.org
- Every minimum is an infimum, while an infimum need not be a minimum. personal.math.vt.edu
- 6A period during which a star's brightness or energy output is at its lowest.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
English borrowed this learned word straight from Latin, where minimum is the neuter of minimus, meaning "least, smallest".