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small talk. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Pronunciation
Noun
small talk (uncountable)
- (idiomatic) Idle conversation, typically on innocuous or unimportant subjects, usually engaged in at social gatherings out of politeness.
1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter VII, in Mansfield Park: , volume I, London: T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 134:[T]o the credit of the lady it may be added, that […] without any of the arts of flattery or the gaieties of small talk, he began to be agreeable to her.
1910, P. G. Wodehouse, Misunderstood:If he had a fault as a conversationalist, it was a certain tendency to monotony, a certain lack of sparkle and variety in his small-talk.
2009 June 10, John Cloud, “Michael Jackson 1958–2009”, in Time:Yet for so public a figure, Jackson was socially awkward, inept at small talk and terrified when the distant audience became an adoring mob.
Alternative forms
Synonyms
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Descendants
Translations
idle conversation
- Arabic: كَلَام خَفِيف m (kalām ḵafīf), مُحَادَثَة خَفِيفَة f (muḥādaṯa ḵafīfa)
- Catalan: xerrameca (ca) f, garleries f pl
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 閑談/闲谈 (zh) (xiántán), 聊天 (zh) (liáotiān), 寒暄 (zh) (hánxuān)
- Czech: tlachání n, nezávazná konverzace f
- Dutch: praatje (nl) n, koetjes en kalfjes pl or n, lichte conversatie f
- Finnish: rupattelu (fi), jutustelu (fi), small talk (fi)
- French: papotage (fr) m, bavardage (fr) m
- Galician: parola (gl) f, leria (gl) f
- German: Alltagsgespräch (de) n, Plauderei (de) f, Smalltalk (de) m or n, Plaudern n, belangloses Gespräch n, belanglose Unterhaltung f
- Greenlandic: please add this translation if you can
- Hebrew: סמול טוק m (smól tok)
- Hungarian: terefere (hu), társalgás (hu)
- Icelandic: rabb, mas
- Irish: cabaireacht f, mionchomhrá m
- Italian: chiacchiera (it) f
- Japanese: 雑談 (ja) (ざつだん, zatsudan), 世間話 (ja) (せけんばなし, sekembanashi)
- Korean: 잡담 (ko) (japdam), 한담 (handam)
- Latin: sermunculus m
- Maori: tūtara
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: småprat m or n
- Nynorsk: småprat m or n
- Polish: small talk (pl) m
- Portuguese: conversa fiada (pt) m
- Russian: лёгкая бесе́да f (ljóxkaja beséda), све́тский разгово́р m (svétskij razgovór)
- Spanish: charla (es) f, palique m
- Swedish: kallprat (sv) n, småprat (sv) n
- Welsh: mân siarad m
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Further reading