Minimises

Minimises is the third-person singular present tense of the verb minimise in British English. It denotes the act of making something as small as possible, or reducing its scope, amount, or impact. Common uses include minimising costs, risks, waste, or exposure, and minimising the size or duration of a process.

Etymology and spelling: The verb is formed from the adjective minimum or the noun minimum (and related forms such as minimus), with the suffix -ise to create a verb. The British English spelling minimises uses -ise and an emphasis on s, while American English typically uses minimize with -ize.

Domains and usage: In mathematics and optimization, minimisation refers to finding the input that yields the smallest value of a function, often written as argmin f(x). In computer science and statistics, many learning algorithms seek to minimise a loss or error function during training, using methods such as gradient descent. In everyday and professional language, minimising can describe reducing costs, risks, time, energy use, or environmental impact.

Applications and context: The concept is widely employed in engineering, economics, and policy to improve efficiency and sustainability. It is frequently discussed alongside maximisation, which aims to increase a quantity, such as profit or throughput. The choice between minimising and maximising depends on the objective and constraints of a given problem or activity.

See also: minimisation (noun form), minimizer or minimiser (agent that minimises), optimization, minimize, maximise.