trivial

B2 Topic:Describing Qualities

US /ˈtɹɪv.i.əl/ See IPA manual

Freq #10821

Meanings

1

adj
Of little importance or value.

Don't waste your time arguing over such trivial details.
2

adj
Concerned with unimportant or shallow things.

Their conversation was trivial and quickly forgotten.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · of little importance or value. negligible trifling superficial little

Opposites

fundamental importantnontrivialradical significant

Word family

Forms trivialness

Derived forms nontrivialtriviatrivialitytrivially

Common collocations

trivial question Adjective + noun

Etymology

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”).

triviālis Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# trivial

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B2
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /ˈtɹɪv.i.əl/
**Frequency rank:** 10821

## Meanings
1. Of little importance or value.
2. Concerned with unimportant or shallow things.

## Examples
- Don't waste your time arguing over such trivial details.
- Their conversation was trivial and quickly forgotten.

## Antonyms
- fundamental
- important
- nontrivial
- radical
- significant

## Derived Forms
- nontrivial
- trivia
- triviality
- trivially

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: triviālis

## Etymology
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”).

## AI Etymology
Trivial * 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”). In present-day use, it can mean of little importance or value, or concerned with unimportant or shallow things.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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