menial

[ mee-nee-uhl, meen-yuhl ]

adjective

1. lowly and sometimes degrading:

   menial work.

   Antonyms: dignified

2. servile; submissive:

   menial attitudes.

   Synonyms: fawning

   Antonyms: proud

3. pertaining to or suitable for domestic servants; humble:

   menial furnishings.

noun

1. a domestic servant.

   Synonyms: lackey, hireling, underling, attendant

2. a servile person.

menial

/ ˈmiːnɪəl /

adjective

1. consisting of or occupied with work requiring little skill, esp domestic duties such as cleaning
2. of, involving, or befitting servants
3. servile

noun

1. a domestic servant
2. a servile person

Derived Forms

• ˈmenially, adverb

Other Words From

• meni·al·ly adverb
• non·meni·al adjective
• non·meni·al·ly adverb
• un·meni·al adjective
• un·meni·al·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of menial¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English meynyal, from Anglo-French me(i)nial; meiny, -al ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of menial¹

C14: from Anglo-Norman meignial, from Old French meinie household. See meiny

Synonym Study

See servile.

Example Sentences

Her mother fled Japan when Hirono was 9, bringing her children to Hawaii and working menial jobs for low wages to keep them fed.

From Washington Post

Gone are the cluttered maps that entice players with menial tasks.

From Washington Post

During the Confederacy, as each secessionist state printed its own money, images of enslaved people picking cotton and doing other forms of menial labor appeared on the currency in several states.

From Time

Essentially, Wolfe’s hormones failed to function properly, and even the most menial tasks were exhausting.

From Popular-Science

Many music traditions are dying out, with practitioners taking up menial labor to make ends meet.

From Ozy

They are often forced to drop out of school and take menial jobs to support their new family.

From The Daily Beast

Although I hated the menial tasks the job required, it gave me a window into the power of local government.

From The Daily Beast

Or refusing to take on menial work, such as working in a café for example, and instead whining at your parents to pay your rent?

From The Daily Beast

UNRWA teachers are paid such menial wages that many treat teaching like flipping burgers.

From The Daily Beast

Licensed practical nurses are essentially menial hospital workers who collect vital signs, change bedpans, and bathe patients.

From The Daily Beast

He lay there five days, during which we performed every friendly and even every menial office.

From Project Gutenberg

The crown had been struck from the head of the king, and was snatched at by the most menial and degraded of his subjects.

From Project Gutenberg

Two years afterwards, whilst working in a menial capacity, he attended the school of San Juan de Letran.

From Project Gutenberg

From ministerial down to menial posts no claim was raised, no request preferred.

From Project Gutenberg

And, by presenting this to the menial who opened the door to you at your house, you went in rejoicing, and all was peace.

From Project Gutenberg