midget

/ˈmɪdʒɪt/

/ˈmɪdʒɪt/

Other forms: midgets

Midget is an offensive term for someone who is much smaller than average. While it's acceptable today to describe an inanimate object with the adjective midget, it's never okay to use the word for a person.

Long ago, people felt free to describe little people as midgets — for example, the actors who played the Munchkins in the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz" were routinely described as midgets. Today we'd avoid describing these actors by their physical characteristics, but if we did they'd be called "little people," "dwarfs," "LP," or even "people of short stature." Save midget for midget crabapples or midget submarines.

Definitions of midget

1. noun

   a person who is markedly small
   synonyms: dwarf, nanus

   types:

   Levi-Lorrain dwarf, hypophysial dwarf, pituitary dwarf

   a dwarf whose condition is caused by a deficiency of growth hormones, rather than by genetic factors (as in the case of the achondroplastic dwarf)

   hypoplastic dwarf, normal dwarf, primordial dwarf, true dwarf

   an achondroplastic dwarf whose small size is the result of a genetic defect; body parts and mental and sexual development are normal

   type of:

   small person

   a person of below average size
2. adjective

   very small
   synonyms: bantam, diminutive, flyspeck, lilliputian, petite, tiny

   little, small

   limited or below average in number or quantity or magnitude or extent