diminution
/ˌdɪmɪˈnjuːʃ(ə)n
/noun
1A reduction in the size, extent, or importance of something: a permanent diminution in value [mass noun]: the disease shows no signs of diminution...
- The smaller back room was crowded with scaled-down pieces, which seemed to have picked up density and psychological charge along with their diminution in size.
- The obsession with size - or the diminution thereof - seems to lead some people to lose sight of what really matters, which is profitability.
- This is a reflection of the diminution in the importance of marriage, and of the adult relationship as the focus of attention for family law and policy, and of the shift towards an emphasis upon parenthood.
Synonyms
curtailment, curtailing, cutting back, cutback, cut, attenuation, reduction, lessening, lowering, decrease, contraction, constriction, restriction, limitation, limiting, curbing;
weakening, undermining, sapping
decline, decrease, reduction, dwindling, shrinking, fading, failing, weakening, slackening, ebb, receding, wane, falling off;
loss, erosion, depletion, impoverishment
1.1 Music The shortening of the time values of notes in a melodic part.The motif moves in dotted minims, and though diminutions of it and its inversion abound throughout the symphony, it is in this rhythmic form that it plays its most important role....
- He nurses it through E flat, B flat minor and various wispy diminutions, never losing sight of his beginning; then finally cranks it up through G flat / F sharp minor back to the initial high D for his recapitulation, ‘Who will remember?’
Origin
Middle English: via Old French from Latin deminutio(n-), from the verb deminuere (see diminish).