a unit of angular distance equal to a 60th of a degree
"The astronomer adjusted the telescope's aim by exactly two minutes of arc to lock onto the faint star cluster."
A unit of time equal to sixty seconds (one-sixtieth of an hour).
"The meeting was scheduled for exactly five minutes past three."
In plain English: A minute is a very short amount of time equal to sixty seconds.
"She checked her watch to see how many minutes were left in the movie."
Usage: Use "minute" as a noun when referring to a sixty-second unit of time, ensuring it is pronounced with two syllables like my-NOOT. Do not confuse this meaning with the adjective for very small, which is pronounced with one syllable and capitalized only at the start of a sentence or title.
Of an event, to write in a memo or the minutes of a meeting.
"The secretary will minute the discussion about budget cuts at tomorrow's board meeting."
In plain English: To minute something means to write down what is said during a meeting so it can be saved for later.
"She decided to minute the meeting so everyone would have a record later."
Usage: Use the verb minute when you formally record the proceedings of a meeting into official notes. It is often confused with the noun meaning "small," but as a verb it specifically refers to documenting discussions for later reference.
infinitely or immeasurably small
"two minute whiplike threads of protoplasm"
"reduced to a microscopic scale"
Very small.
"The dust particles were so minute that they seemed to vanish into thin air."
In plain English: Minute means extremely small or tiny.
"She made a few minor changes to the minute details of her report."
Usage: Use minute as an adjective to describe something extremely tiny or insignificant, such as a minute detail. It is often misheard as "my newt," but it always refers to size rather than time in this context.
The word "minute" comes from the Old French minute, which originally meant a small note or a sixtieth part of an hour. It entered Middle English as mynute before evolving into its modern meaning related to tiny amounts or units of time.