1
as in small
not broad or open in views or opinions
a petty little town that was not ethnically diverse and very happy about the situation
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in nominal
so small or unimportant as to warrant little or no attention
obsessed over even petty problems
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 petty
The Pentagon’s position was that all of this petty haggling was moot.
—
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2026
Any suggestion of a cohesive, equitable tax policy in Florida has been shredded by petty partisanship, deceitful tactics and fake populism.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 14 Mar. 2026
The government may not have hired Bobbi or urged Ghirotti to seek his petty revenge, but the men’s savagery is inseparable from that of a state sustained by atrocity.
—Michael Snyder, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2026
What is the pettiest thing that annoys you during a race weekend?
—Jeff Gluck, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for petty
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 14 Mar. 2026
Any suggestion of a cohesive, equitable tax policy in Florida has been shredded by petty partisanship, deceitful tactics and fake populism.
—Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 14 Mar. 2026
The government may not have hired Bobbi or urged Ghirotti to seek his petty revenge, but the men’s savagery is inseparable from that of a state sustained by atrocity.
—Michael Snyder, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2026
What is the pettiest thing that annoys you during a race weekend?
—Jeff Gluck, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for petty
Recent Examples of Synonyms for petty
Adjective
-
The cab’s dark interior seems to lure Rauschenberg in, but perhaps he was also drawn to the small round window, like a porthole, above the seat, which looks out at the distance behind the carriage.—
Hilton Als,
New Yorker,
4 Apr. 2026
-
Consider reshuffling your to-do list, because a small shift could save money and protect your energy.—
Tarot.com,
Baltimore Sun,
4 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Because a present that is over $100, Miss Manner assures you, is indeed meant for a wedding and not a shower, whose gifts are supposed to be more nominal.—
Judith Martin,
Mercury News,
28 Mar. 2026
-
In an alternative scenario, the cap would stay fixed in nominal dollar terms, in our examples at $100,000 or $70,000 sans bumps for the CPI, for 20 or 30 years, and after those intervals grow in tandem with wages.—
Shawn Tully,
Fortune,
26 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
But quietly, the third-year forward had put himself in position for a more parochial reserve reward, one that caught him unaware.—
Ira Winderman,
Sun Sentinel,
30 Mar. 2026
-
The school, a private parochial campus overseen by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, had 390 students in kindergarten through eighth grade in 2025, according to its website.—
Nick El Hajj,
Des Moines Register,
25 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
UConn came into the game as a slight underdog despite having beaten the Illini by 13 points at Madison Square Garden back in November.—
Joe Arruda,
Hartford Courant,
5 Apr. 2026
-
Black One and Monoliths & Dimensions maintain a slight distance from the listener with a layer of reverb that softens the bone-crushing power of the guitars.—
Daniel Bromfield,
Pitchfork,
4 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
One stretch of narrow country road leading north out of the town of Clones in the Republic, for example, goes through Northern Ireland for some yards before reverting to the Republic.—
Colm Tóibín,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 2026
-
That's because the radio waves are emanating over a wider range of directions rather than just in a narrow cone from the poles.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
3 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
But finding spare money is not a trivial task.—
Nara Parameswaran,
The Conversation,
30 Mar. 2026
-
Maintaining that orchestration; keeping updates stable and synchronized; is not trivial.—
MSNBC Newsweek,
MSNBC Newsweek,
29 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
But with Spokane creating little offensively, Andema laid the ball off along his own end line to defender Moussa Ndiaye to start a chaotic sequence that ended with the ball in the back of Boise’s net.—
Idaho Statesman,
Idaho Statesman,
5 Apr. 2026
-
In the ’90s, the peninsula was taken over by a string of summer-only nightclubs, with little regard for the natural surroundings or the ancient cemetery buried in the pine forest.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
5 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Meanwhile, that global temperature record that DiCaprio mentioned in his acceptance speech in 2016 seems almost trifling compared to what has happened since.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
19 Mar. 2026
-
The health factor is no trifling qualifier for a player who has missed time with shoulder and oblique injuries, in addition to that unfortunate incident with his pelvic floor.—
Andrew Baggarly,
New York Times,
31 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Petty.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/petty. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
