minimum

noun

1. 1

   The lowest limit.

   We prefer candidates with a minimum of 4 years experience in the field.

   We need a minimum of three staff members on duty at all times.

2. 2

   The smallest amount.

   He always tries to get away with doing the minimum.

   Please keep noise to a minimum after 11 o'clock

   Realism might be the hardest aesthetic to do well. The performances have to be genuinely moving and the setting vividly evoked; bonkers twists must be kept to a minimum.

3. 3

   A period of minimum brightness or energy intensity (of a star).

   The Maunder minimum of the Sun reportedly corresponded to a period of great cold on Earth.

4. 4

   A lower bound of a set which is also an element of that set.

5. 5

   The smallest member of a batch or sample or the lower bound of a probability distribution.

adjective

1. 1

   To the lowest degree.

Forms

plural

minima, minimums