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trivial

adj.
B2 Upper Intermediate US //ˈtɹɪviəɫ// UK //tɹˈɪvɪəl// triv·ial Archaic

adj. having little value or importance. You use this to describe things that are not worth worrying about because they are so small or minor.

adj. of little value, importance, or significance. In technical contexts like mathematics, it describes a case or solution that is so simple it is not interesting.


SIMPLE

I don't want to waste time on trivial matters.

CONTEXTUAL

The manager dismissed the complaint as trivial, focusing instead on the major budget shortfall.

COMPLEX

While the individual errors seemed trivial in isolation, their cumulative effect over several months led to a significant loss of data integrity across the entire system.

Synonyms
Origin

PIE word *tréyes * From Latin triviālis (“appropriate to the street-corner, commonplace, vulgar”), from trivium (“place where three roads meet”). Compare trivium, trivia. * From the distinction between trivium (“the lower division of the liberal arts; grammar, logic and rhetoric”) and quadrivium (“the higher division of the seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages, composed of geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and music”).

Usage

Often follows a linking verb like 'seem' or 'appear'; frequently modified by 'relatively' or 'entirely'.

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