plural minnows also minnow
1
a
: a small cyprinid, killifish, or topminnow
b
: any of various small fish that are less than a designated size and are not game fish
2
: a live or artificial minnow used as bait
Examples of minnow in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Jigs can be tipped with any variety of soft plastics or live bait like minnows, leeches, or night crawlers.
—
Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 13 June 2024
These sites preserve thousands of small, hard parts of a diversity of animals, ranging from traces of microscopic parasites, to the scales of minnows, to bits of much bigger frogs, turtles, birds, mammals, crocodiles and dinosaurs.
—Kristi Curry Rogers, Scientific American, 1 Feb. 2024
Puerto Rico ia a minnow compared to the whales of the U.S., Mexico and Canada teams in the region.
—Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 10 June 2024
The social media landscape has radically changed since the last election in December 2019, when TikTok was the new kid on the block and a relative minnow compared to the likes of Facebook and Twitter (now X).
—Elliott Goat, The Week Uk, theweek, 28 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for minnow 
Alex Robinson, Outdoor Life, 13 June 2024
These sites preserve thousands of small, hard parts of a diversity of animals, ranging from traces of microscopic parasites, to the scales of minnows, to bits of much bigger frogs, turtles, birds, mammals, crocodiles and dinosaurs.
—Kristi Curry Rogers, Scientific American, 1 Feb. 2024
Puerto Rico ia a minnow compared to the whales of the U.S., Mexico and Canada teams in the region.
—Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 10 June 2024
The social media landscape has radically changed since the last election in December 2019, when TikTok was the new kid on the block and a relative minnow compared to the likes of Facebook and Twitter (now X).
—Elliott Goat, The Week Uk, theweek, 28 May 2024
See all Example Sentences for minnow
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'minnow.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near minnow
Cite this Entry
“Minnow.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/minnow. Accessed 7 Jul. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
minnow
noun
min·now
ˈmin-ō 
plural minnows also minnow
: any of various small freshwater fishes (as a dace or shiner) related to the carps
also
: any of various small fishes that resemble minnows
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share