Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A minute amount; an iota or trace.
- n. A spark; a flash.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A spark; a glimmer; hence, the least particle; a trace; a tittle.
- n. [capitalized] [NL.] In zoology:
- n. A genus of bivalve mollusks.
- n. A genus of lepidopterous insects.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A spark; the least particle; an iota; a tittle.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tiny or scarcely detectable amount
- n. a sparkling glittering particle
Etymologies
- Latin, spark.
Examples
“Yesterday's term was scintilla, which is defined as:”
“The court went on to determine that the "scintilla" test would create too much ambiguity as well.”
“Not-Laura was proud to have planted "a skin-tella of doubt," though she probably meant "scintilla," but had no concept of how to pronounce the word.”
“You don't feel any kind of scintilla of ethics on this thing at all?”
“scintilla' of evidence of wrongdoing - refusing to carry out a proper investigation and claiming that Gus O'Donnel”
“She betrayed the families of the victims who certainly have been waiting nearly five long years to get some kind of scintilla of justice reports that "U.S.”
“Most of what he has to say is by now pretty familiar to anyone with a scintilla of interest in the topic, but I was intrigued by the analogy he offered up between contemporary globalization of communications and the settling of the New World.”
“Would anyone with a scintilla of actual taste or style really be caught dead at a place tacky enough to explicitly remind patrons they should “dress to impress”?”
“Yet from the nabobs of finance there is still not a whisper of a hint of a scintilla of humility or penance.”
The Guardian: The protesters seem more adult than politicians and plutocrats | Andrew Rawnsley
“But neither is there a scintilla of Scripture that would suggest he was actively heterosexual.”
The Huffington Post: Eliot Daley: Same-Sex Marriage Is Not A Matter For Ballots
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scintilla’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 138 more...
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Imprecise Units of Measurement
A list of terms for units of measurement that are less than exact, such as dessert-spoonful.
two shakes, dessert-spoonful, a pinch, a bit, some, smidge, smidgin, dollop, drop, fleck, smack, sprinkling and 168 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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#faveword
Words chosen as favorites for the Twitter hashtag #faveword.
autumnal, grotto, chiaroscuro, sfumato, homunculus, zing, zest, effervescent, bewitch, avuncular, susurrus, Styrofoam and 205 more...
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truman486's list
Masterbatory Aids
ensorcelled, scintilla, maudlin, lugubrious, frisson, praxis, copasetic, crotch, corollary, bandy, undulating, anthropomorphic and 65 more...
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February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
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Not Much
smidgeon, iota, scintilla, dab, bit, trace, touch, soupçon, crumb, dash, drop, whit and 18 more...
kingparton A hundred races, from the mightiest to the weakest... you took from each of them a shade, a hue, a tint, and a scintilla, enfolding them to your bosom, adding them to the splendor of your attire, and continuing your course through the ages with vigor and resolve.
Arshak Chopanian, "Ode to My Native Tongue" Jul 25, 2011
thenewvivek Sounds like a fragment of a fascinating conversation. Aug 26, 2009
asativum You know, I'd think a scintilla is smaller than a soupçon, just from the phrase"not a scintilla of evidence. Jun 21, 2008
gangerh But smaller than a soupspoon. Jun 21, 2008
johnmperry I always envisage a scintilla as being hard and sharp, like a glass splinter, whereas a soupcon sounds much more liquid somehow. Jun 21, 2008
johnmperry Probably bigger than a soupcon
Jun 21, 2008
bilby Italian - spark. Apr 7, 2008
reesetee Also the name of an imaginary ultra-compact car. ;-> Oct 8, 2007