Origin: Latin suffix -al
Trivial has 5 different meanings across 1 category:
Any of the three liberal arts forming the trivium.
"The medieval curriculum divided education into two parts, where students first studied the trivial subjects before advancing to the quadrivium."
In plain English: A trivial noun is something so small and unimportant that it doesn't really matter at all.
"The trivial was ignored in favor of more important matters during the meeting."
(informal) small and of little importance
"a fiddling sum of money"
"a footling gesture"
"our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war"
"a little (or small) matter"
"a dispute over niggling details"
"limited to petty enterprises"
"piffling efforts"
"giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction"
of little substance or significance
"a few superficial editorial changes"
"only trivial objections"
Ignorable; of little significance or value.
"The minor scratch on his car was considered trivial compared to the major accident that occurred earlier."
In plain English: Trivial means something so small and unimportant that it doesn't really matter.
"The argument over who took the last cookie was completely trivial compared to our serious financial problems."
Usage: Use trivial to describe something so insignificant that it is not worth considering, rather than using synonyms like minor which can still imply importance. Avoid confusing this adjective with the noun form referring to a specific group of classical liberal arts subjects.
The word "trivial" comes from the Latin triviālis, which originally meant "appropriate to a street corner." It entered English with this sense of being commonplace or vulgar, derived from trivium, the place where three roads met.