What Does "Minor Inconvenience" Mean? (With Examples)

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Learn the definition of the common English collocation

Co-authored by Amanda Boyce and Luke Smith, MFA

Last Updated: February 27, 2025 Fact Checked

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• What does “minor inconvenience” mean?
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• Examples of Minor Inconveniences

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Untied shoes, a rip in your shopping bag, a pen that just ran out of ink—these are all examples of minor inconveniences. They’re small, annoying problems that have easy solutions, but you still wish they hadn’t happened. We’ll fill you in on the complete definition of “minor inconvenience,” then give you 25 examples of common minor inconveniences we all run into at some point.

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Section 1 of 2:

What does “minor inconvenience” mean?

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1. 
   A minor inconvenience is something that’s a little annoying. An “inconvenience” is an issue or problem that prevents you from getting what you want. “Minor” is an adjective that here means something of little importance. A minor inconvenience, then, is a small problem or an issue that can be overcome easily. They tend to be annoying or frustrating, but they don’t usually result in any serious difficulty or harm.

   • Example: “The long red traffic light was a minor inconvenience.”
   • “I had a minor inconvenience when my alarm didn’t go off this morning.”
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Section 2 of 2:

Examples of Minor Inconveniences

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1. 
   1
   When you get cozy in bed then suddenly have to pee. Your head’s on your pillow, the blankets are pulled all the way to your chin, and you’re happily rubbing your legs together like some sort of oversized, absurdly content cricket. That is, until you feel a pressure in your bladder and realize that, sooner or later, you’ll have to venture out from the warmth of your bed just to pee, and who’s to say if you’ll ever be as comfortable again? Absolutely tragic.
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   2
   When the ads are so much louder than the show. You’re practically putting your ear up against your TV just to hear the dialogue. Then, without warning, here comes the loudest ad break ever created, sending you reeling backward with your ears ringing. Hey advertisers, that’s one way to make sure we never buy your product (or at least always mute your ads), take it from us.
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   3
   When you realize you don’t have enough milk for your cereal. The morning is a delicate and sensitive time for many of us, and the last thing we need is to pour a heaping bowl of cereal, then reach for a milk jug that’s a little too light for comfort. Tip it over the bowl and… only a splash of milk comes out, enough to make you eat that bowl of cereal—it can’t go back into the box—but not enough to enjoy it.
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   When you choose the squeakiest cart at the grocery store. You’re here to get in, get your groceries, and get out. Easy. Don’t draw attention to yourself—you haven’t showered and your hair’s a mess. Well, it’s too bad you grabbed the squeakiest, loudest cart in a 10-mile radius, and now you have to pretend you don’t notice it as you roll up and down the aisles just looking for the milk.
5. 
   5
   When you forget why you walked into a room. It’s a real and studied scientific phenomenon called the “Doorway Effect,” and it’s also incredibly frustrating. Essentially, it happens when your brain is too preoccupied with bigger things than the task at hand, so you walk through a doorway and suddenly can’t remember the small thing you intended to do.
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   When every floorboard creaks while you’re trying to be quiet. Your roommates are asleep and the only thing between you and a late-night snack is the veritable minefield of groaning floorboards. Now’s your moment of truth when all your ninja training pays off and you’ll walk silently to the fridge and back, right? Good luck!
7. 
   7
   When you have to sit through a minute of ads to watch a 1-minute video. This one speaks for itself. And actually, it’s not just 1-minute videos. It seems like every time you boot up a video, there are more ads than there were last time. And what’s the point? It’s not like you’re watching them. Those suckers are muted and your eyes are fixed firmly on the “Skip to video” button.
8. 
   8
   When you show up to the function before anyone you know. You’re here when all your friends said they’d show up, so where are they? You’re left sitting awkwardly in the corner trying to decide if you should make small talk with a stranger, wait for your friends to show, or just leave altogether. Whatever you do, your friends are going to get a talking to in the group chat, that’s for sure.
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   9
   When the internet decides that it wants to be slow today. Look, we get it, we all need a day off now and then. But, like, you’re the internet, and now’s not a good time. We have work to do and images to see and social media feeds to scroll. And lots of other very important stuff. Also, we pay good money for this. Just work. Please.

   • Looks like it’s time to troubleshoot your connection. Have you tried turning it off and back on?
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    10
    When someone steals your food from the fridge. We like to think that, at the end of the world, once we all have to look back on our time on Earth and answer for how we spent this one wild and precious life, some of us will be a little ashamed of spending it stealing other people’s food out of the refrigerator. It’s cruel. It’s unusual. It’s unforgivable. We’re talking to you, David from accounting. Stop that. Pack your own lunch.
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    11
    When you get comfy on the couch and realize the remote is too far away. Popcorn? Check. Cozy blanket? Check. Beverage? Check. Remote? Uh, not check. Where’d it go? Are you sitting on it? Did the dog get it? There it is! All the way across the room. If only we could move things with our minds.
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    12
    When the self-checkout tells you to hurry it up. You’re minding your own business and swiping your barcodes across the scanner when the self-checkout voice suddenly catches an attitude. “Please place your item in the bagging area,” it says. Well, that's what you were about to do, if the computer would just give you a moment. “Unexpected item in the bagging area.” Well, which is it?
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    13
    When another driver hangs out in your blind spot. Are you passing them? Are they passing you? Apparently, neither. You’re just going to keep driving at the exact same speed, and they’ll stay right where you can’t see them. Not only is it annoying, but it’s dangerous, too. Remember, look over your shoulders before turning or merging!

    • Also, position your rearview mirrors to help you minimize those blind spots.
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    14
    When you burn your mouth on hot food and ruin the meal. Your meal looks and smells absolutely divine, so who could blame you for taking just one hasty little bite? Shouldn’t have done that. Now your tongue is burned, and every bite after this won’t taste nearly as good. It’s probably not divine punishment for something you did in the past, but it sure feels like it. Quick, drink something cold to mitigate that burn.

    • Drinking milk can help coat your tongue with soothing fats. Also, treat tongue burns by swishing saltwater around your mouth for 30 seconds, then spitting it out.
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    15
    When you throw something in the garbage and miss the can. We can’t all be professional basketball players, but we can get a glimpse of the dream when we make that 3-pointer from our desk to the trash can. Except for when we miss and have to do the walk of shame to go get our trash and place it in the can, like we probably should have from the start.
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    16
    When you lose a wireless earbud. Everyone be quiet, I’m listening for my earbud. No, I don’t remember where I last had it, it just fell out of my ear at some point. Let me just turn up the volume. Do you hear that? This never happened with wired headphones.

    • Keep your earbuds from falling out by swapping the silicone insert for a larger size to make the bud fit more snugly in your ear.
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    17
    When you wake up earlier than you planned on your day off. All you really want is to sleep in, but when your eyes shoot open, your clock says it’s a whole 10 minutes before your alarm usually goes off. And now that you’re awake, there’s no getting back to sleep. Guess you’ll just have to make the most of the morning. Ugh.
18. 
    18
    When you need to sneeze but just can’t. Your eyes close, your nose wrinkles. Here it comes! Ah, ah… Hello? Looks like the sneeze bailed at the very last moment, but now you’re standing there stuck with that tickly feeling in your nose, and who can say when it’ll go away. Make yourself sneeze by looking at a bright light (just not the sun). Thank us later.
19. 
    19
    When your shoes “eat” your socks. It’s one of the worst feelings—walking along and suddenly feeling a sock sag low. So low it starts crawling into your shoe. It tends to happen most with ankle socks, or ill-fitting longer socks, and brings your whole day to a halt as you stop and pull those suckers back up. Or worse, you have to wait until later and just live with the discomfort.
20. 
    20
    When you have a low battery and your charger is just out of reach. That little red battery icon is flashing like an alarm on a sinking ship, but you’re just so comfortable. Do you stretch to reach the charging cable, jeopardizing your vibes? Or do you let your phone die? It’s an impossible choice.

    • Pro tip: We recommend picking up an extra long charging cable. No more sitting awkwardly while you wait for that precious battery percentage.
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    21
    When you step in a puddle on the floor while wearing socks. This is in our top 10 worst sensations, for sure. It sends shivers up your spine, and suddenly there’s nothing you want more than to just crawl out of your skin. There’s nothing for it but to stop everything, peel those socks off, and throw on a dry pair. Just don’t forget to wipe up that puddle, or it might happen again.
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    22
    When you can’t find something to watch as you sit down to eat. Are you a YouTube eater? A Netflix muncher? A Hulu diner? Some of us just can’t eat if we’re not tuned in. But sometimes there’s just absolutely nothing to watch, and you’re left scrolling endlessly while your food gets cold. You weren’t planning on watching Euphoria again, but if you don’t settle on something, you may as well not eat.
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    23
    When you enter the wrong password one too many times. You could have sworn that was your password. Apparently not. Apparently, neither is this. Or that. Aaaaand now you’re locked out for 5 minutes. You didn’t really want to log in anyway, right?

    • And don’t even get us started on when you go to reset your password and it tells you that your new password can’t be the same as your old one. It’s enough to make your eye twitch.
24. 
    24
    When you have to complete a weird captcha. Captchas are getting super difficult, right? It’s not just us? (No, actually, it’s not—it’s a real problem that has to do with training ever-smarter AI.) What do you mean those abstract squiggles are actually letters I’m supposed to recognize? And does this square count as having a traffic light inside it if it’s just a little sliver? Who gave the computer the right to make us prove we’re humans, anyway?
25. 
    25
    When the subtitles don’t match what the characters are saying. If you’re like us, you might have trouble understanding your fav shows without subtitles, even when they’re in your primary language. (Like us, you might have audio processing issues). So when those subtitles don’t actually match up to the show’s dialogue, our brains short circuit and suddenly we’re not absorbing anything because we’re too caught up trying to decide which is correct—the text on screen or what our ears maybe might have heard. Time to rewind.
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