trivial

"Trivial" is a useful adjective — and occasionally a noun — that most learners encounter fairly quickly. It has a couple of closely related senses, all revolving around the idea of something being small, unimportant, or not worth serious attention.

1adjectiveunimportant or insignificant

When something is trivial, it is so small or unimportant that it really does not deserve much attention or worry. Think of it as the opposite of 'serious' or 'significant'. If a problem is trivial, you can probably ignore it or fix it in seconds.

everyday language · Modern, widely used

Don't waste the meeting's time on trivial details — focus on the big decisions.

They argued over something completely trivial, like which colour pen to use.

The damage to the car was trivial, just a tiny scratch on the bumper.

2adjectiveeasy or requiring little effort

In this sense, trivial means something is so simple that it takes almost no skill or thought to do. You will often hear this in technical or academic contexts, where someone says a task or problem is 'trivial' to solve — meaning any competent person could handle it without difficulty.

science, technology, academic language · Modern, common in technical contexts

For an experienced programmer, fixing that bug is trivial.

The maths involved is trivial — just basic addition and subtraction.

What seems trivial to an expert can feel very hard to a beginner.

3adjectiverelating to trivia (facts and knowledge)

This sense connects to the word 'trivia' — small, random pieces of knowledge or facts. When something is described as trivial in this way, it relates to fun, miscellaneous facts rather than deep knowledge. You will mostly see this in the context of quiz games or casual conversation.

games, entertainment, casual conversation · Modern, informal contexts

He has a trivial knowledge of old films — he knows every actor's name and birthday.

The game show asked trivial questions about pop culture and history.

She enjoys trivial facts about animals, like how many teeth a snail has.