Bryce Dessner

As little boys, my brother and I used to spend hours with my grandmother, asking her about the details of how she came to America. She could only give us a smattering of details, but they all found their way into our collective imagination, eventually becoming a part of our own cultural identity and connection to the past.

American Composer

Craig Brown

Like the periwig and the bowler hat, the plus-four and the bow-tie, the blazer is on the way out, and those who persist in wearing it do so with a smattering of self-consciousness, a touch of obstinacy, even a pinch of camp.

English Critic

Lisa Joy

When I first began writing, it was not in screenwriting but in poetry. That form was so evocative, all about the image and the emotion captured in a Polaroid-like smattering of words.

American Director

Sriti Jha

Besides Hindi and English, I can speak in Maithli, my native language, and in Bangla and Nepalese too. But I can just about make a smattering at Marathi.

Indian Actress

Rachael Stirling

Just laughing a lot would be the most important thing in a relationship to me. And a smattering of trust. A dollop of laughter - and an icing of trust.

English Actress

Aubrey de Grey

If you look at winners of the Nobel Prize in biology, you'll find a fair smattering of people who don't know how to work a pipette.

English Author

Use 'smattering' to suggest shallow knowledge or minimal presence of something, not deep understanding.

Not Enough Depth

Emphasize the scarcity or limited amount when something is mentioned as having a smattering.

Sparingly Present

'Smattering' can describe varied small quantities, from physical items to abstract concepts.

Diverse Contexts

'Smattering' often implies the first level of learning something, like understanding only basic words of a language.

Beginner Level

When referencing a language, 'smattering' indicates far less than fluency or conversational level.

Not Fluent

Use 'smattering' for knowledge that doesn't go beyond the basics or introductory parts.

Introductory Knowledge

 look at other bacteria and these are just a smattering of the molecules that we've discovered and what I hope you can see is that the molecules are related so the left-hand part of the molecule is identical in every single species of bacteria but the right-hand part of the molecule is a little bit different in every single species and what that does

How bacteria "talk" -...

 And then we started to look at other bacteria, and these are just a smattering of the molecules that we've discovered. What I hope you can see is that the molecules are related. The left-hand part of the molecule is identical in every single species of bacteria. But the right-hand part of the molecule is a little bit different

Bonnie Bassler: The...

 Everything that you read in the book is something that either I experienced or that I was told by someone at the sanctuary or by this researcher, so every story in there is true. Wow. How long were you at each place? I was in... at the elephant sanctuary for just a smattering of days. It was couple of days,