verb ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To knowingly say that something is smaller or less important than it actually is, especially as a way of showing contempt or deprecation. transitive

   "Don't belittle your colleagues."

2. 2
   lessen the authority, dignity, or reputation of wordnet
3. 3
   To make small. transitive

   "Now, the big blue space of river and sky belittled him, ulled him back into bewildered childhood."

4. 4
   express a negative opinion of wordnet
5. 5
   cause to seem less serious; play down wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

minimizedenigratederogatediminishdiminishdisparage

Antonyms

All antonyms

valuebig upcut it fatembiggen

Example

More examples

"Why do you have to belittle people all the time?"

Etymology

From be- + little. Coined by Thomas Jefferson in 1782

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.