Trivial

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈtɹɪ.vi.É™l/
• CaE IPA: ˈt(ʃ)ɹɪviËŒ(ÊŠ)l

Origin

From Latin triviālis ("appropriate to the street-corner, commonplace, vulgar"), from trivium ("place where three roads meet"). Compare trivium, trivia.

Full definition of trivial

Adjective

1. Ignorable; of little significance or value.
• 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, , Bantam Classics (1997), 16:"All which details, I have no doubt, Jones, who reads this book at his Club, will pronounce to be excessively foolish, trivial, twaddling, and ultra-sentimental."
2. Commonplace, ordinary.
• De QuinceyAs a scholar, meantime, he was trivial, and incapable of labour.
3. Concerned with or involving trivia.
4. (biology) Relating to or designating the name of a species; specific as opposed to generic.
5. (mathematics) Of, relating to, or being the simplest possible case.
6. (mathematics) Self-evident.
7. Pertaining to the trivium.
8. (philosophy) Indistinguishable in case of truth or falsity.

Synonyms

• (of little significance) ignorable, negligible, trifling

Antonyms

• nontrivial
• important
• significant
• radical
• fundamental

Derived terms

• trivia

Noun

1. (obsolete) Any of the three liberal arts forming the trivium.