smattering
/ˈsmætɚɪŋ/ noun C2- A shallow or superficial knowledge of a subject. · She knows a smattering of Greek, but not enough to carry on a conversation.
- A small amount or number of something. · There’s only a smattering of people who oppose the first amendment.
Plural smatterings
From the library
Without having been in the school of the Abbé Faria, the worthy master of La Jeune Amélie (the name of the Genoese tartan) knew a smattering of all the tongues spoken on the shores of that large lake called the Mediterranean, from the Arabic to the Provençal, and this, while it spared him interpreters, persons always troublesome and frequently indiscreet, gave him great facilities of communication, either with the vessels he met at sea, with the small boats sailing along the coast, or with the people without name, country, or occupation, who are always seen on the quays of seaports, and who live by hidden and mysterious means which we must suppose to be a direct gift of Providence, as they have no visible means of support.
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