What's the difference between subtle and trivial?

Subtle


Definition:

  • (superl.) Sly in design; artful; cunning; insinuating; subtile; -- applied to persons; as, a subtle foe.
  • (superl.) Cunningly devised; crafty; treacherous; as, a subtle stratagem.
  • (superl.) Characterized by refinement and niceness in drawing distinctions; nicely discriminating; -- said of persons; as, a subtle logician; refined; tenuous; sinuous; insinuating; hence, penetrative or pervasive; -- said of the mind; its faculties, or its operations; as, a subtle intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle process of thought; also, difficult of apprehension; elusive.
  • (superl.) Smooth and deceptive.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) As a group, the three mammalian proteins resemble bovine serum conglutinin and behave as lectins with rather broad sugar specificities directed at certain non-reducing terminal N-acetylglucosamine, mannose, glucose and fucose residues, but with subtle differences in fine specificities.
  • (2) But it will be a subtle difference, because it's already abundantly clear there's no danger of the war being suddenly forgotten, or made to seem irrelevant to our sense of what Europe and the world has to avoid repeating.
  • (3) Communicating sustainability is a subtle attempt at doing good Read more And yet, in environmental terms it is infinitely preferable to prevent waste altogether, rather than recycle it.
  • (4) If, indeed, there is an immunologic basis for pre-eclampsia, it is more subtle than the methodology used in this study is capable of detecting.
  • (5) Subtle differences between Chicago urban and Grand Forks rural climates are reflected in arthritic subjects' degree of pain and their perception of pain-related stress.
  • (6) Critical in this understanding are the subtle changes that occur in the individual patient, reflecting the natural history of the disease or response to its treatment.
  • (7) Subtle cognitive deficits in Inferential Reading Comprehension were detected when Reading Vocabulary was at or better than a twelfth grade level.
  • (8) This histochemical difference corresponded to more subtle differences in Nissl and myelin staining patterns, and suggests further structural subdivisions of potential functional significance.
  • (9) Thus, luciferase transcriptional fusions can detect subtle variations in initial rates of gene expression in a real-time, nondestructive assay.
  • (10) The binding of [3H]PAF to washed human platelets indicated subtle changes between Days 2 and 4, which became more noticeable by Day 6.
  • (11) In this study the temperature dependence of the reactivity of aldolase SH groups is investigated in order to detect subtle changes in the enzyme conformation.
  • (12) The crucial issue of whether subtle behavioral, intellectual, and developmental impairment occurs in young children, as a result of lead-induced CNS damage is discussed in detail.
  • (13) Historically, what made SNL’s campaign coverage so necessary was its ability to highlight the subtle absurdities of the election and exaggerate the ridiculous.
  • (14) It is believed that by looking at such subtle shape differences an understanding of what it means morphologically for a primate to be either more or less arboreal may be achieved.
  • (15) The current magnetic resonance imaging system with computerized image processing is a sensitive and simple method for evaluation of subtle parenchymal changes of the brain.
  • (16) Fundus examination disclosed a subtle cherry red spot bilaterally.
  • (17) Ependymal cells developed luminal fronds that projected into the ventricle and the subpial glia displayed a very subtle gliosis in the form of thin multi-laminated processes.
  • (18) The rapidity of obtaining the results (within one hour), the complete absence of untoward reactions to the radiopharmaceuticals, the much lower frequency of subtle or indeterminate results, the ability to render useful information in the presence of moderate jaundice and the lack of interference from overlying intestinal contents establishes these radionuclide agents as superior to both radiographic oral and intravenous cholangiography in the investigation of the acute abdomen.
  • (19) Moreover, subtle improvements observed in earlier investigations were not confirmed.
  • (20) Various compounds show subtle but significant differences in blood clearance, excretion, and soft-tissue uptake.

Trivial


Definition:

  • (n.) One of the three liberal arts forming the trivium.
  • (a.) Found anywhere; common.
  • (a.) Ordinary; commonplace; trifling; vulgar.
  • (a.) Of little worth or importance; inconsiderable; trifling; petty; paltry; as, a trivial subject or affair.
  • (a.) Of or pertaining to the trivium.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The case of a 32-year-old man who suffered a blow to his left supraorbital region and eyebrow in an automatic closing door is reported to draw attention to the uncommon but trivial nature of this injury which may result in profound visual loss.
  • (2) Governmental regulations, requirements, and standards have improved the quality of many laboratories' work, but also result in greatly increased costs, excesses of often trivial procedures, and diversion of trained manpower from clinical service to regulatory procedures, with a resulting increase in manpower needs.
  • (3) Things are both more trivial than they ever were, and more important than they ever were, and the difference between the trivial and the important doesn't seem to matter.
  • (4) While they might technically have been denied a majority in that scenario, making up the two missing seats would have been trivial.
  • (5) We have shown that patients with chronic airflow obstruction (CAO) complain of disabling dyspnea when performing seemingly trivial tasks with unsupported arms.
  • (6) Given the documented sensitivity of chest radiography in this respect, we conclude that any increase in extravascular lung water during exercise must be trivial.
  • (7) schizophrenia), the underestimation of prevalence by the proband method may be non-trivial.
  • (8) They range from relatively trivial conditions such as oral and genital thrush to fatal, systemic superinfections in patients who are already seriously ill with other diseases.
  • (9) Snoring usually is trivial and unimportant, but it can turn into a social or medical problem.
  • (10) To the sensitization and the sensitine production the following type strains (Trudeau Institute Saranac Lake) were used: M. avium, M. borstelense, M.chelonei, M. flavescens, M. fortuitum, M. gastri, M. gordonae, M.kansaii, M. marinum, M nonchromogenicum, M. phlei, M. scrofulaceum, M. smegmatis, M. terrae, M. triviale and M. bovis strain Vallee as well as M. intracellulare serotyp Davis ATCC 23435.
  • (11) Cardiovascular sequelae were generally trivial at all doses.
  • (12) Previous studies have indicated that suppression is mediated by "null cells" similar to natural suppressor (NS) cells (1), and have ruled out several possible trivial explanations for the suppressive effect.
  • (13) Since the biosynthetic route is similar to that of lipoxin A4 and lipoxin B4, we suggest the trivial names lipoxin C4, D4 and E4.
  • (14) This polysaccharide has been given the trivial name marginalan.
  • (15) Rupture of the bridging veins or the intratumoral abnormal vessels due to twisting of the brain from trivial head trauma or without trauma might produce subdural hematoma.
  • (16) Five patients had normal intracardiac hemodynamic values, 2 had trivial atrioventricular valve regurgitation and 1 patient had trivial pulmonary ventricular outflow tract obstruction.
  • (17) Six weeks later, two weeks after a trivial trauma with hyperextension of the shoulder joint, it was found that the catheter had broken and its tip portion had embolized into the pulmonary artery: it was retrieved without difficulty via the femoral vein.
  • (18) The results indicate that dichromatic and trichromatic monkeys differ only trivially on tests where performance is based on the contributions of non-opponent mechanisms, that the contribution of spectrally opponent mechanisms to the "brightness signal" is very similar in trichromatic and dichromatic monkeys, and that in increment-threshold discriminations where there are both chromaticity and luminance cues some test wavelengths yield superior performance for trichromats while others appear to favor the dichromat.
  • (19) Thus, the same tribunal that regularly consigns ordinary, powerless Americans to prison for decades for even trivial offenses yet again acts to protect the most powerful actors from any consequences for serious crimes: that is the US justice system in a nutshell.
  • (20) The appetite was selective as shown by the fact that when, after depletion, 0.34 M-CaCl2 was offered (which is equiosmotic to 3% NaCl) pigeons took just a trivial amount of it.