微々(びび)たる

びびたる
taru-adjective
slight; insignificant; trivial
formaldescriptive
1. slight; trivial; insignificant; negligible
Describes something extremely small in amount, degree, or importance. A literary-style prenominal adjective (連体詞) that can only appear before nouns.
微々(びび)たる金額(きんがく)だ。
It's a trivial amount of money.
努力(どりょく)の成果(せいか)は微々(びび)たるものだった。
The results of the effort were negligible.
全体(ぜんたい)から見(み)れば微々(びび)たる差(さ)にすぎないが、本人(ほんにん)にとっては大(おお)きい。
It may be an insignificant difference overall, but it matters a lot to the person involved.

Common patterns

微々(びび)たる is a prenominal adjective (連体詞(れんたいし)) that only modifies nouns directly. It cannot be used predicatively (*微々(びび)たるだ is ungrammatical). The pattern ～たるもの is very common.

Common collocations

Similar words

些細(ささい)な means trivial or trifling and can be used both before nouns and predicatively. わずかな means slight or tiny and is more neutral in tone.

Related Words

Compare: 雀(すずめ)の涙(なみだ) (a mere pittance)
general
Added 2026.3.5 15:54 · Revised 2026.9.28 9:58
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