Minutiae are the very small, exact details of something — the little bits that most people skip or find tiring. He knew the minutiae of the law; she got lost in the minutiae of the plan. It is almost always used in the plural. The old singular, minutia, a single tiny point, is rare; in real talk people say minutiae even when they mean the small stuff as a heap. The word is rather formal and a bit bookish. In easy English you would say tiny details, the small points, or the little things. People often use it with a sigh, as if those details are fussy. It is not the minutes of a meeting (the written notes), though the two look like cousins. The idea is smallness, not time.