man-minute
C2Technical / Formal Business
Definition
Meaning
A unit of work, representing the work done by one person in one minute.
Used in project management, economics, and manufacturing to quantify labor input, cost estimation, or productivity measurement. It abstracts human labour into a standardized, quantifiable metric.
Linguistics
Semantic Notes
A compound noun functioning as a countable unit of measurement. Similar in construction to 'man-hour' but less common. It is often used in plural form (man-minutes).
Dialectal Variation
British vs American Usage
Differences
Spelling and phrasing are generally identical. The concept is universal in technical contexts. 'Person-minute' is a modern, gender-neutral alternative that is increasingly common in both regions, but 'man-minute' remains in established use.
Connotations
The term 'man' in the compound can be seen as dated or gender-exclusive, especially in corporate environments promoting inclusive language.
Frequency
Low frequency in general language but stable in specific technical and industrial fields. 'Man-hour' is significantly more common than 'man-minute'.
Vocabulary
Collocations
Grammar
Valency Patterns
[Number] + man-minutes[Verb: require/consume/take/save] + [Number] + man-minutescost of + [Number] + man-minutesVocabulary
Synonyms
Strong
Neutral
Weak
Vocabulary
Antonyms
Phrases
Idioms & Phrases
- “Every man-minute counts”
- “penny-wise and pound-foolish with man-minutes (adapted)”
Usage
Context Usage
Business
Used for granular task costing and efficiency analysis in manufacturing or software development.
Academic
Found in industrial engineering, operations research, and economic papers on labour productivity.
Everyday
Virtually never used. Replaced by simpler terms like 'time' or 'effort'.
Technical
Standard unit in work breakdown structures, Gantt charts, and resource planning software.
Examples
By Part of Speech
verb
British English
- The process was man-minuted to identify bottlenecks.
American English
- We need to man-minute each step in the assembly.
adjective
British English
- The man-minute cost has risen due to wage increases.
American English
- We reviewed the man-minute estimates for the quarter.
Examples
By CEFR Level
- The repair is estimated to take 120 man-minutes.
- We saved several man-minutes by streamlining the form.
- The cost model breaks down expenses to the man-minute level for unprecedented accuracy.
- A variance of just five man-minutes per unit, when scaled, represents a significant productivity loss.
Learning
Memory Aids
Mnemonic
Imagine a clock where the minute hand is a tiny worker. Each tick is one 'man-minute' of work done.
Conceptual Metaphor
TIME IS MONEY / HUMAN LABOUR IS A MEASURABLE COMMODITY. The worker is abstracted into a time-based resource, like fuel or electricity.
Watch out
Common Pitfalls
Translation Traps (for Russian speakers)
- Avoid translating literally as *мужчина-минута. Use *человеко-минута or the descriptive *трудозатраты в минутах.
- Do not confuse with просто минута, which does not imply labour measurement.
- The concept is similar to человеко-час, just on a smaller scale.
Common Mistakes
- Using it as an uncountable noun (e.g., 'We need more man-minute'). It is countable.
- Confusing it with 'minutes' from a meeting.
- Using the singular form when a plural is needed after a number (e.g., 'It took ten man-minute').
Practice
Quiz
In which context is 'man-minute' LEAST likely to be used?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
The term uses 'man' in the traditional, generic sense of 'human', but it is increasingly viewed as outdated. In modern professional writing, 'person-minute' or 'staff-minute' are preferred gender-neutral alternatives.
A 'man-hour' is a unit of work done in one hour by one person. A 'man-minute' is simply a smaller, more granular unit of the same concept (1/60th of a man-hour). Man-minutes are used for very short, repetitive tasks.
Yes, though it is jargon. To 'man-minute' a task means to calculate or estimate its labour requirement in man-minutes. This usage is highly technical and industry-specific.
The standard plural is 'man-minutes'. For example, 'The job required 45 man-minutes.'