Smallnesses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or state of being small in size or amount, often referring to physical dimensions
2. the characteristic of being limited or diminished in significance or impact
3. a plural form indicating multiple instances or types of minimal size or triviality

Etymology: "Smallnesses" is the plural of "smallness," so it names several instances or kinds of the quality of being small. The base word goes back to Old English "smæl," meaning slender, thin, or fine, and the Middle English form "smalnesse" was built on it by adding the suffix "-ness," which turns an adjective into a noun for a quality. The same suffix produces pairs like "happiness" from "happy" and "darkness" from "dark." Because "smallness" is an uncountable quality noun, the plural is rare and mostly used to refer to separate examples of the quality, as in a writer listing the smallnesses of a village or a life. The word's history is therefore plain: a native English adjective plus a productive noun-forming suffix, with no foreign borrowing involved.

Synonyms: littleness, minuteness, diminutiveness, petiteness, compactness

Antonyms: largeness, greatness, bulkiness, enormity, vastness