minimum

plural minima · plural minimums

1. The lowest limit.

   We need a minimum of three staff members on duty at all times.

   1 more example

   We prefer candidates with a minimum of 4 years experience in the field.

2. The smallest amount.

   Please keep noise to a minimum after 11 o'clock

   2 more examples

   He always tries to get away with doing the minimum.

   Realism might be the hardest aesthetic to do well. The performances have to be genuinely moving and the setting vividly evoked; bonkers twists must be kept to a minimum.

   2021 April 16, Judy Berman, “Kate Winslet's Mare of Easttown Is the Rare Crime Drama That Cares About Its Characters”, in Time, archived from the original on 16 Apr 2021

3. astronomyA period of minimum brightness or energy intensity (of a star).

   The Maunder minimum of the Sun reportedly corresponded to a period of great cold on Earth.

4. mathematical analysisA lower bound of a set which is also an element of that set.
5. mathematicsThe smallest member of a batch or sample or the lower bound of a probability distribution.

1. not comparableTo the lowest degree.

   Synonyms: minimal