A minicomputer is a mid-size computer from an older chapter of computing: larger and more powerful than a personal computer, smaller and cheaper than a mainframe, and used by businesses and other large organisations so many people could share the same machine. The word belongs mainly to the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Though actually, “mini” here is relative, and that is the part people get wrong. A minicomputer could still fill a cabinet and need a cool room. It was mini next to a mainframe the size of a room, not mini next to a laptop. After personal computers arrived, this middle class mostly faded. Today we say server, or just computer. You will meet minicomputer in IT history, old textbooks, and talk about how machines used to be classed: mainframe, then mini, then micro (the personal computer). It is a historical technical word, not a shopping word. Do not use it for a small laptop, a tiny modern PC, or a pocket computer — that flips the history.

迷你電腦、小型電腦（舊時介於大型主機與個人電腦之間的中型機，不是現在的筆電）