detail

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun

A part small enough to escape casual notice.
A profusion of details.
The small parts that can escape casual notice.
A part considered trivial enough to ignore.
A person's name, address and other personal information.
A temporary unit or assignment.
An individual feature, fact, or other item, considered separately from the whole of which it is a part.
A narrative which relates minute points; an account which dwells on particulars.
A selected portion of a painting.

verb

To explain in detail.
To clean carefully (particularly of road vehicles, always pronounced /ˈdiːteɪl/)
To assign to a particular task.

Pronunciation

/ˈdiː.teɪl/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-detail1.wav /ˈdi.teɪl/ /dɪˈteɪl/ En-us-detail.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-detail2.wav

Word forms

detail details detailing detailed

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French détail, from Old French detail, from detaillier, from de- + taillier (“to cut”). Compare typologically Bulgarian подробност (podrobnost), Czech podrobnost, Russian подро́бность (podróbnostʹ) (akin to дроби́ть (drobítʹ)).

Synonyms

minutia technicality trifle triviality contingent detachment portion section specify detach second

Related words

tailor tally deets overview bird's-eye view big picture

Derived words

detailee detailer detailist detailless detailly detailman detail-oriented God is in the detail go into detail in detail into detail microdetail security detail superdetail the devil is in the details detailing detailingly

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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