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as in diminutive
of a size that is less than average a model train carrying Lilliputian figures through a miniature landscape

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of Lilliputian Slovenia—a Lilliputian nation about the size of New Jersey but with less than a quarter of its population—has many stories to tell. Ellen Ruppel Shell, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Nov. 2024 The Lilliputian sellers regularly fail to do damage when matched with the oblivious index money. Jim Cramer, CNBC, 20 Oct. 2024 Lo trumpets Lilliputian equipment: 1-quart pots; an immersion blender in place of a behemoth; a toaster oven in lieu of a conventional one. Scott Hocker, theweek, 2 Aug. 2024 They’re served in Lilliputian beer steins that look like they were pulled from a doll house. Becky Cooper, New York Times, 7 May 2024 Photograph: Ted Stryk/NASA/SwRI/MSS Yet the relatively small hearts in Lilliputian moons like Enceladus don’t contain enough radioactive matter to keep them toasty for billions of years. WIRED, 24 Dec. 2023 Recent viral evening bags have been shaped like pigeons, covered in crystals and rendered useless by Lilliputian proportions. Aria Darcella / Photographs By F. Martin Ramin/the Wall Street Journal; Prop Styling By Sean Dooley , WSJ, 24 Nov. 2023 Yet the relatively small hearts in Lilliputian moons like Enceladus don’t contain enough radioactive matter to keep them toasty for billions of years. Quanta Magazine, 2 Nov. 2023 Though feedback in the category concerns Lilliputian vessels, readers nevertheless gave these brands some of the best marks received in any World’s Best Awards voting. Paul Brady, Travel + Leisure, 11 July 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for Lilliputian
Adjective
  • Beneath that ice, the light sensors recorded an astronomically small number of photons: an upper range of 0.04 micromoles per square meter per second, a number very close to the theoretical minimum amount of light that photosynthesis can run on.
    Asher Elbein, WIRED, 2 Mar. 2025
  • Despite being a very small heavyweight at 210 pounds, sophomore Daniel Moylan, took third at 285.
    Kevin J. Farmer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Presented here, through some visual trickery, as a diminutive schlump with a hideous comb-over, Hawke doesn’t exactly disappear into the role, which strikes me as fortuitous and perhaps deliberate.
    Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2025
  • Named Grace after the late pioneer of software engineering Grace Murray Hopper, the diminutive craft will conduct several hops that reach up to 50 meters (164 feet) in the air before diving into a nearby crater that lives in permanent shadow.
    Jackie Wattles, CNN, 26 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • But being able to distinguish when things are challenging versus straight-up unhealthy can keep you from spiraling into petty drama and sneaky backstabbing.
    Jenna Ryu, SELF, 3 Mar. 2025
  • On the page, Serafina is an archetypical Williams heroine — a woman who feels the world too deeply and is therefore brutalized by its harsh truths and petty cruelties (e.g. Maggie the Cat, Blanche DuBois, Amanda Wingfield).
    EW Staff, EW.com, 2 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • In many cases, these communities had gotten little federal attention for generations, Ortiz said.
    Zoë Schlanger, The Atlantic, 7 Mar. 2025
  • Dolly Parton and Carl Dean had one of the entertainment industry's most enduring marriages, but very little is known about the country music legend's late husband.
    Ashley Hume, Fox News, 7 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • And yet conceding those messy parochial disputes to powers outside the university seems to some to represent no less of a crisis.
    Nathan Heller, The New Yorker, 3 Mar. 2025
  • Nation-states and their parochial identities would give way to an interdependent and cosmopolitan future.
    Foreign Affairs, Foreign Affairs, 25 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Acupuncture and the tiny sugar pellets of homeopathy.
    Hazlitt, Hazlitt, 5 Mar. 2025
  • My worst days were spent being transported to the courtroom shackled and isolated in a tiny cage, waiting to be summoned into trial.
    James L. Dold, Baltimore Sun, 5 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Others may include family offices that offer a narrower range of services.
    Francois Botha, Forbes, 2 Mar. 2025
  • Thirty narrow stairs lead to City Ballet’s bright, top floor rehearsal studio, with double ballet barres lining three walls, a floor-to-ceiling mirror, and an open ceiling with a treacherously low center beam that high jumping dancers have learned to avoid.
    Marcia Luttrell, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • The new Petite Malle — a miniature version of Vuitton’s signature trunks — features a trompe-l’oeil design made to look like three trunks in one.
    Hannah Malach, WWD, 6 Mar. 2025
  • From these plots Du turns Coconut Trees into a miniature travelogue and existential road picture—come for the beautiful locales, stay for a conversation about fate, faith, and regret worthy of Rohmer—with faint wisps of a ghost tale.
    Samantha Bergeson, IndieWire, 5 Mar. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Lilliputian.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/Lilliputian. Accessed 13 Mar. 2025.

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