little vs slight

little

adj
  • Insignificant, trivial. 

  • Operating on a small scale. 

  • Very young. 

  • Short in duration; brief. 

  • To imply that the inhabitants of the place have an insular attitude and are hostile to those they perceive as foreign. 

  • Small in extent of views or sympathies; narrow; shallow; contracted; mean; illiberal; ungenerous. 

  • Younger. 

  • Used with the name of a place, especially of a country or its capital, to denote a neighborhood whose residents or storekeepers are from that place. 

  • Having few members. 

  • Small in size. 

  • Used to belittle a person. 

adv
  • Not at all. 

  • Not much. 

pron
  • Not much; not a large amount. 

noun
  • One who has mentally age regressed to a childlike state. 

  • A small amount. 

  • A child; particularly an infant. 

  • A newly initiated member of a sorority, who is mentored by a big. 

  • The participant in ageplay who acts out the younger role. 

det
  • Not much, only a little: only a small amount (of). 

slight

adj
  • trifling; unimportant; insignificant 

  • still; with little or no movement on the surface 

  • Even, smooth or level 

  • not far away in space or time 

  • of slender build 

  • gentle or weak, not aggressive or powerful 

  • not thorough; superficial 

verb
  • To act negligently or carelessly. 

  • To treat with disdain or neglect, usually out of prejudice, hatred, or jealousy; to ignore disrespectfully. 

  • To treat as unimportant or not worthy of attention; to make light of. 

  • To render no longer defensible by full or partial demolition. 

  • To give lesser weight or importance to. 

  • To throw heedlessly. 

noun
  • The act of ignoring or snubbing; a deliberate act of neglect or discourtesy. 

How often have the words little and slight occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )