What is the difference between minimize and minimalize?

Answer 1

One correct spelling (Oxford dictionary) in British English is minimize.

Source: The Oxford dictionary, available online at: http://www.askoxford.com

[Accessed 02/08/09]

Another correct spelling is mimimise.

Source: Allen, Robert, ed (2009). Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 354. and The Cambridge University Press has long favoured -ise

Minimise and Minimize are spelling variations of the same word. Both words are pronounced the same way and mean the same thing. "Minimize" is the only accepted way in North America,

Perhaps as a reaction to the ascendancy of American spelling, the -ize spelling is now rarely used in the UK mass media and newspapers

The -ise form is standard in leading publications such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Economist

The statement below is only partly correct.

"while "Minimise" is traditionally used in Britain and other commonwealth countries."

Australian English uses 3 times more often the -ise than the -ize (source: the Australian Macquarie Dictionary: minimise: to reduce to the smallest possible amount or degree)

The British National Corpus, which is a 100-million-word text corpus of samples of written and spoken British English from a wide range of sources, indicates that the -ise is used more often in British English language that the -ize (ration of 3:2).

Both are commonly accepted, but it helps to be consistent in one's writing (i.e. if you're going to use minimise in your writing, then also use maximise, realise, visualise, etc.)

Please note: this does not apply to "practice" and "practise" (which sound the same, but are not the same word).

Practice is a noun (e.g. my law practice)

Practise is a verb (e.g. I need to practise my English)

This is true in both English and American English.

Answer 2

Minimize means to physically make smaller, whereas to minimalize means to make smaller, but not necessarily physically. For instance, if you have a webpage with 100 buttons, you could minimize it using the button next to the close button. If you took out all of the buttons you didn't use, leaving 10, that would be minimalizing.

Answer 3

Minimum: least possible

Minimal:just enough or very little