little
limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent
How often you will meet it
Rank 65 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 392,019 times across 175,160 chapters — 0.186% of every word in the library.
It belongs to the first 100 words, the band worth learning before any other.
What it means
adjective
- limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent also: small a little dining rooma little house
- (quantifier used with mass nouns) small in quantity or degree; not much or almost none or (with `a') at least some also: slight little rain fell in Maygave it little thought
- (of children and animals) young, immature also: small what a big little boy you aresmall children
- (informal) small and of little importance also: fiddling, footling, lilliputian, niggling, piddling, piffling a fiddling sum of moneya footling gesture
- (of a voice) faint also: small a little voicea still small voice
- low in stature; not tall also: short he was short and stockyshort in stature
little in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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Very little children have sometimes done remarkable work in the plays.
The White Christmas and other Merry · Walter Ben Hare · Chapter 1
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And still the three hundred stood packed, waiting--thinning a little, but so little.
The Courage of the Commonplace · Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews · Chapter 1
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Author of "The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come," "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," Etc.
The Heart of the Hills · John, Jr. Fox · Chapter 1
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They suffered her to touch a little hand of each, passively rather than unwillingly, and let it go.
Christian's Mistake · Dinah Maria Mulock Craik · Chapter 1
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In my little cottage he seemed like a giant, six-foot-two, broad, and swart with the burning fire of tropical suns.
The Betrayal · E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim · Chapter 1