Minute Pronunciation: How to Say Minute (MIN-it) and Minute (my-NOOT), with Meanings
Yurii Rebryk · Updated October 25, 2026 · 7 min read
Minute is pronounced MIN-it /ˈmɪn.ɪt/ when it means 60 seconds, and my-NOOT /maɪˈnuːt/ (American) or my-NYOOT /maɪˈnjuːt/ (British) when it means very small (Cambridge Dictionary). The time word stresses the first syllable; the adjective stresses the second. The spelling never changes, so the meaning decides: if you can swap in tiny, say my-NOOT.
In this article
- How do you pronounce minute? Two words, two sounds
- How to say minute sound by sound
- Minute vs minute: how to know which one to say
- What does minute mean? Every sense with an example
- Forms of minute: minutes, minuted, minutest, minutely
- Common minute pronunciation mistakes
- Other words like minute: heteronyms with two sounds
- Where does the word minute come from?
- Practice saying both minutes out loud
How do you pronounce minute? Two words, two sounds
Cambridge, Oxford Learner’s and Merriam-Webster agree on the pattern: MIN-it for the noun and the verb, my-NOOT for the adjective. Oxford even numbers them as two separate words, minute¹ and minute².
| Meaning | Word class | British English | American English | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 seconds; a short time | noun | /ˈmɪn.ɪt/ MIN-it | /ˈmɪn.ɪt/ MIN-it | “I’ll be back in a minute.” (Cambridge) |
| to write the official record of a meeting | verb | /ˈmɪn.ɪt/ MIN-it | /ˈmɪn.ɪt/ MIN-it | “I’d like that last remark to be minuted.” (Oxford Learner’s) |
| extremely small; very detailed | adjective | /maɪˈnjuːt/ my-NYOOT | /maɪˈnuːt/ my-NOOT | “She examined the contract in minute detail.” (Cambridge) |
American dictionaries also list forms with a weaker vowel. Cambridge’s American dictionary gives the noun as /ˈmɪn·ət/ (MIN-uht) and the adjective as /mɑɪˈnut, mə-/, so muh-NOOT is listed too. Merriam-Webster lists ˈmi-nət for the noun and mī-ˈnüt, mə-, -ˈnyüt for the adjective, and the Oxford English Dictionary gives US /maɪˈn(j)ut/.
How to say minute sound by sound
Both vowels change between the two words, and the stress jumps from the first syllable to the second. The Cambridge pronunciation page plays each one in UK and US audio.
| Part | MIN-it (time) | my-NOOT (small) |
|---|---|---|
| First syllable | /ˈmɪn/: m, the short i of ship, n; stressed | /maɪ/: m and the vowel of eye; unstressed |
| Second syllable | /ɪt/: the short i of ship and t; weak | /ˈnuːt/: n, the long vowel of blue, t; stressed |
| British detail | same as American | a y sound before the vowel: /ˈnjuːt/, as in yes |
Minute vs minute: how to know which one to say
Read the whole phrase, not the single word. Three checks cover the common cases:
- Swap in tiny. “Minute amounts of dust” still works as “tiny amounts of dust”, so it is my-NOOT. “Wait a tiny” makes no sense, so “wait a minute” is MIN-it.
- Look for an s. Minutes is the plural noun or the verb, both MIN-its /ˈmɪnɪts/ (Oxford Learner’s). English adjectives take no plural s, so the minutes of a meeting are MIN-its too.
- Ignore word position. The time word also sits before nouns: minute hand /ˈmɪn.ɪt ˌhænd/ and minute steak /ˈmɪn.ɪt ˌsteɪk/, a thin steak that “can be cooked very quickly” (Cambridge).
| Phrase | Which word | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| wait a minute | noun | MIN-it | please wait a short time |
| in minute detail | adjective | my-NOOT | showing every small detail (Cambridge) |
| last-minute | noun | last-MIN-it | “a last-minute cancellation”: at the latest possible time (Cambridge) |
| minute amounts, minute particles | adjective | my-NOOT | “There were minute particles of dust in the air.” (Merriam-Webster) |
| take the minutes | noun (plural) | MIN-its | write the record of a meeting |
| up-to-the-minute | noun | up-to-the-MIN-it | “up-to-the-minute news”: the most recent (Cambridge) |
| the minutest error | adjective | my-NOO-tist | “The equipment is able to detect the minutest errors.” (Merriam-Webster) |
| the minute (that) | noun | MIN-it | “I want to see him the minute he arrives.” (Oxford Learner’s) |
In meetings, “Could you take the minutes?” asks someone to write the record (Cambridge). More lines for meetings: business English conversation.
What does minute mean? Every sense with an example
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| minute (noun) | “one of the 60 parts that an hour is divided into, consisting of 60 seconds” (Cambridge) | “It takes me 20 minutes to get to work.” (Cambridge) |
| minute (noun, informal) | a very short time (Oxford Learner’s) | “It only takes a minute to make a salad.” (Oxford Learner’s) |
| minute (noun, maths) | “the 60th part of a degree of angular measure” (Merriam-Webster) | “Its latitude is 41 degrees 55 minutes north.” (Merriam-Webster) |
| the minutes | “the written record of what was said at a meeting” (Cambridge) | “The secretary read the minutes of the previous meeting.” (Merriam-Webster) |
| minute (verb) | “to make a written record of what is said at a meeting” (Cambridge) | “Meetings must be minuted and the minutes approved at the following meeting.” (Oxford Learner’s) |
| minute (adjective) | “extremely small” (Cambridge) | “minute amounts of chemicals in the water” (Oxford Learner’s) |
| minute (adjective) | “very detailed, careful and complete” (Oxford Learner’s) | “a minute examination of the evidence” (Merriam-Webster) |
In biology and other science writing, minute before words like hairs, particles or amounts is the adjective: my-NOOT. Merriam-Webster calls tiny “an informal equivalent to minute”, so tiny suits a chat and minute suits a report. Other synonyms are microscopic and infinitesimal (Cambridge); for the short-time noun, moment or second (Merriam-Webster).
Forms of minute: minutes, minuted, minutest, minutely
| Form | Pronunciation | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| minutes (plural noun; verb) | /ˈmɪnɪts/ (Oxford Learner’s) | MIN-its |
| minuted, minuting (verb) | /ˈmɪnɪtɪd/, /ˈmɪnɪtɪŋ/ (Oxford Learner’s) | MIN-it-id, MIN-it-ing |
| minuter, minutest (adjective) | comparative and superlative (Oxford Learner’s, Merriam-Webster) | my-NOO-ter, my-NOO-tist |
| minutely (adverb) | UK /maɪˈnjuːt.li/, US /maɪˈnuːt.li/ (Cambridge) | my-NOOT-lee |
Common minute pronunciation mistakes
| Mistake | What goes wrong | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| MY-noot or mi-NOOT for 60 seconds | reading the u as the long oo of flute; TalkDrill lists it as the most common mistake with the time word | Keep both vowels short: MIN-it. |
| mi-NOO-to, mi-NOO-tuh | carrying over Spanish and Tagalog minuto /miˈnuto/ or German Minute /miˈnuːtə/, stressed on -nu- | Stress MIN and drop the final vowel. |
| “in MIN-it detail” | the time word used for the size word | Tiny detail means my-NOOT detail. |
| MY-noot for very small | right vowels, stress on the wrong syllable | Weak first syllable, strong second: my-NOOT. |
More words where spelling hides the sound: 40 difficult words to pronounce in English.
Other words like minute: heteronyms with two sounds
Minute is a heteronym, one of “two or more words that have the same spelling but different pronunciations and meanings” (Cambridge). In record, present, object and desert, the stress moves between a noun and a verb. Invalid is closest to minute: an adjective and a noun with different meanings. IPA from Cambridge.
| Word | First sound and meaning | Second sound and meaning |
|---|---|---|
| record | REK-ord, noun: written or stored information; UK /ˈrek.ɔːd/, US /ˈrek.ɚd/ | ri-KORD, verb: to store sound or pictures; UK /rɪˈkɔːd/, US /rɪˈkɔːrd/ |
| present | PREZ-uhnt /ˈprez.ənt/, noun: a gift | pri-ZENT /prɪˈzent/, verb: to give or make known |
| object | OB-jekt, noun: a thing; UK /ˈɒb.dʒekt/, US /ˈɑːb.dʒekt/ | uhb-JEKT /əbˈdʒekt/, verb: to express opposition |
| desert | DEZ-ert, noun: an area with very little rain; UK /ˈdez.ət/, US /ˈdez.ɚt/ | di-ZURT, verb: to leave someone without help; UK /dɪˈzɜːt/, US /dɪˈzɝːt/, the same sound as dessert |
| invalid | in-VAL-id /ɪnˈvæl.ɪd/, adjective: not legally or officially acceptable | IN-vuh-lid /ˈɪn.və.lɪd/, noun (old-fashioned): someone sick for a long time |
Heteronyms such as lead, tear and live, plus words with several meanings and one sound: 21 English words with multiple meanings. A word with two correct stress patterns and no change in meaning: how to say finance.
Where does the word minute come from?
Both words go back to Latin minutus, “small”, the past participle of minuere, “to lessen” (Merriam-Webster). They reached English by different routes: the noun partly through French, with OED evidence from about 1384, and the adjective straight from Latin, with OED evidence from about 1440.
The time sense comes from Medieval Latin pars minuta prima, “first small part”: one-sixtieth of a circle, later of an hour. The next division, secunda minuta, became the English word second (Etymonline). Oxford Learner’s traces the minutes of a meeting to a rough copy in “small writing” (Latin scriptura minuta), as opposed to the fair copy.
Practice saying both minutes out loud
Read the passage aloud and switch the sound each time the meaning switches: MIN-it for time and meetings, my-NOOT for tiny and detailed. Record yourself and compare with the Cambridge audio. More drills: shadowing practice and English pronunciation practice.
Two minutes, two sounds
B1Wait a minute. I need one minute to read the minutes of the meeting.
The report was checked in minute detail. Even a minute error was marked in red.
The minute hand moved, and the scientist looked at a minute drop of water.
Five minutes later, the minute differences between the two samples were clear.
A minute to wait, a minute amount. A minute to wait, a minute amount.
Read it aloud
Listen to a model reading, then record yourself. You get your speaking pace, the share of words that came through clearly, and the words to repeat.
Hear how your minute sounds
A dictionary plays the model sound but cannot listen to yours. Fluently, an AI speaking coach for iOS and Android, gives feedback on your pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar. The download is free and starts with a free four-minute speaking assessment; full practice is a subscription after a free trial. Fluently is rated 4.8 on the US App Store from about 6,000 ratings (checked October 2026).
Frequently asked questions
What does “my noot” mean?
“My noot” (also written mynoot or my-noot) spells out the sound of minute the adjective: very small, or very detailed. The written word is still minute, as in “minute amounts” or “in minute detail”. British speakers add a y sound: my-NYOOT.
How do you spell minute as in small?
Exactly like the time word: m-i-n-u-t-e. Only the sound changes. The adjective forms are minuter and minutest, the adverb is minutely and the noun is minuteness (Merriam-Webster). Do not confuse it with minuscule, which also means very small but is a different word: /ˈmɪn.ə.skjuːl/ (Cambridge).
Is it minute or minuit?
In English it is always minute. Minuit is French for midnight, pronounced /mi.nɥi/, roughly mee-NWEE (Wiktionary). The French word for a minute of time is also spelled minute, but it sounds like /mi.nyt/.
How do you pronounce à la minute?
Ah-luh-mee-NOOT: Merriam-Webster writes it ˌä-lə-mē-ˈnüt, stressed on the last syllable, so it sounds closer to the adjective than to MIN-it. It is a cooking term from French for food “prepared very quickly and served immediately”, not prepared in advance.
How do you pronounce minuend?
MIN-yuh-wend: Merriam-Webster gives ˈmin-yə-ˌwend and Wiktionary /ˈmɪnjʊˌɛnd/. The minuend is the number you subtract from: in 10 − 4, 10 is the minuend and 4 is the subtrahend (Wiktionary). It comes from Latin minuere, the same root as minute.
