Teeny means extremely small, even tinier than tiny. When something is so small you can barely see it, like a crumb that falls from your cookie or a dot of paint on your shirt, you might call it teeny.

People often stretch the word even further by saying teeny-tiny or teeny-weeny, which sounds playful and emphasizes just how impossibly small something is. You might describe a ladybug as teeny, or the first sprout pushing up from a seed you planted. A teeny mistake is barely noticeable, like writing one letter a bit too small in your homework.

The word has a gentle, almost affectionate feeling to it. When you call something teeny, you're not usually complaining about its size. Instead, you might be marveling at how something so small can exist at all, like a teeny fish swimming in a tide pool or a teeny button that actually works on a doll's jacket.