Synonyms for paltry

Most common

1. Measly — of little monetary worth

2. Inconsiderable — trashy, trivial, of little value

adj. 1
Trashy, trivial, of little value.
She made some paltry excuse and left.
adj. 2
Of little monetary worth.
Could someone hope to survive on such a paltry income?

or Paltry?

Pitiful and paltry are applied to cases which are beneath anger, and are simply contemptible in a high degree.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

3 letters: low¹
4 letters: poor¹, vain¹, null¹, idle²
5 letters: small¹, cheap¹, petty², lousy²
6 letters: little², slight¹, dismal², shabby², feeble², meager², stingy², meagre, measly²
7 letters: trivial³, pitiful³, puerile²
8 letters: pathetic³, wretched², trifling², picayune³, niggling, pitiable⁴, piddling³, beggarly
9 letters: miserable⁴, worthless², frivolous³
10 letters: despicable⁴, negligible⁴, immaterial⁵
11 letters: meaningless³, indifferent³, unimportant⁴
12 letters: contemptible⁴
13 letters: insignificant⁵
14 letters: inconsiderable
15 letters: inconsequential⁵

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (idle² = 2 syllables).