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🟤 A tiny spot 🔍 To check closely 🔹 Very tiny
flyspeck

flyspeck

8.4
Very small and not important
  • adjective
  • /ˈflaɪˌspɛk/
  • Informal
translation icon : insignificante
  • The novelist described the village as a flyspeck settlement lost in the desert.

Examples

  • His contribution was a flyspeck amount, but it still helped the cause.

  • Compared to its neighbors, the country was a mere flyspeck on the map.

  • Look at that flyspeck!

  • That is a flyspeck!

  • The tiny house on the hill looked like a flyspeck in the vast landscape.

  • Her notes contained a flyspeck of information that was easy to overlook.

  • In the grand scheme of things, his worries seemed like a flyspeck compared to the challenges ahead.

Synonyms

tiny
vsflyspeck
∞ 1.0

So small it can fit in your hand

adds the sense of being unimportant as well as small
miniature
vsflyspeck
101 3.6

Very small in size compared with the usual type

covers extreme smallness in general rather than relative smallness
minuscule
vsflyspeck
37 4.4

Very small in size or amount

is the same idea but can include slight insignificance
diminutive
vsflyspeck
20 6.8

Very small in size

stresses both tiny size and being of little consequence
miniscule
vsflyspeck
  • US
1 4.3

Very small and easy to miss

is the same notion but may stress insignificance more
bantam
vsflyspeck
1 7.7

Being very small in size

can also imply smallness plus being of little importance
lilliputian
vsflyspeck
9.9

Very small or unimportant

focuses more on tiny size or tiny amount alone
flyspecked
vsflyspeck
  • Informal
7.9

A very small unimportant village or town

is more general and applies to tiny size or amount

Antonyms

huge
∞ 1.0

Very large in size, amount, or degree

significant
∞ 2.5

Important and big enough to make a difference

How Small

microscopic
52 4.8
flyspeck
  • Informal
8.4
tiny
∞ 1.0
small
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

flyspeck positive

Morphology

flyspeck = flyspeck (semi-transparent) = fly + speck

The adjective is converted from the noun 'flyspeck', and its meaning of something extremely small is only partly predictable from the literal image.

Etymology

Flyspeck as an adjective keeps the same idea: from fly + speck meaning a 'tiny spot', so it describes something extremely small or not important, like a tiny dot on a map.