1
as in narrow
unwilling to grant other people social rights or to accept other viewpoints
a small-minded man only concerned with his own well-being
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in parochial
not broad or open in views or opinions
resented the small-minded people who automatically opposed every new idea
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of small-minded
The momentum behind these ventures — the idea, unpalatable to many of us small-minded, provincial types, of taking domestic league matches abroad — remains strong.
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Oliver Kay, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025
But small-minded individuals, who happened to be blocking our path at any point in time, my goal was to get around them.
—Rosemary Feitelberg, Footwear News, 23 Oct. 2025
Incremental development and half-measures got us into this problem; that small-minded thinking will not get us out of it.
—Zellnor Myrie, New York Daily News, 9 June 2025
Identify 5 specific behaviors, habits, or thought patterns that would seem ridiculous or small-minded to someone playing at a higher level.
—Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 4 June 2025
The way that Pliny saw it, astrology was small-minded fatalism, in which people glommed onto meaningless symbols for a sense of identity.
—Maya Layne, Vogue, 14 Feb. 2025
Their small-minded nature is justified through closeness, but really, everyone seems miserable, with their connections to Judaism existing in social standing only.
—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2024
Clearly, the two men are supposed to represent competing visions of Britishness: the one tolerant and outward-looking, drawing on the country’s rich heritage as a way to move the culture forward, the other entitled and small-minded, invested in the past only as a tool of propaganda.
—Giles Harvey, The New Yorker, 23 Sep. 2024
Abbas has steadily devolved into an erratic and small-minded authoritarian.
—Khaled Elgindy, Foreign Affairs, 30 Aug. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for small-minded
Adjective
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During this time frame, a narrow, intense lake-effect snow band, only about 10 miles wide, will be capable of thunder, wind gusts near 35 mph and near-zero visibility at its peak.—
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The climb is infamous for its heart-pumping switchbacks and vertiginous jaunt along a narrow sliver of crag.—
Adjective
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Working-class voters visiting a Reform clubhouse were more likely to find young professionals discussing weighty matters of foreign policy rather than parochial issues like street paving.—
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Looming over the desk is a giant cross made of yardsticks, those famous instruments of parochial-school torment, formed into a set of crosshairs.—
Adjective
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The Islamic Republic has lost many of its best and brightest to emigration, and the members of the élite who remain are, in general, from a more provincial background.—
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On Saturday afternoon, an explosive drone hit the Aleppo provincial government building shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city, state TV said.—
Adjective
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The founders argue that automation should be accessible to smaller operators, including neighborhood bars and private event spaces.—
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There can be 30 minutes of small waves before a sneaker wave strikes.—
Adjective
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Garlow condemned violence against Jewish people, even going so far as to call out people within his own faith who have expressed bigoted beliefs.—
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Here was an extremely wealthy and culturally powerful woman who, for some reason, insisted on making her bigoted views about people like me openly and widely known.—
Adjective
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Angel went for a respectful middle-of-the-road jab — complimenting her parenting and resilience, but maligning her for being petty.—
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Who is not petty or vindictive.—
Adjective
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Anyone proposing to offer a master class on changing the world for the better, without becoming negative, cynical, angry or narrow-minded in the process, could model their advice on the life and work of pioneering animal behavior scholar Jane Goodall.—
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The deficient vice of being open-minded is being narrow-minded.—
Adjective
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The trick will be getting the word out beyond these relatively insular groups, to a wider audience who won’t care that Black’s creative sphere friends are in the campaigns and collaborating on the clothes.—
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These debates over rhetoric and tactics have been taking place in an insular cultural enclave where forum threads come to vivid life.—
Cite this Entry
“Small-minded.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/small-minded. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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