smattering

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Superficial or piecemeal knowledge.
• noun A small, scattered amount or number.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A slight or superficial knowledge: as, to have a smattering of Latin or Greek.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A slight, superficial knowledge of something; sciolism.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A superficial or shallow knowledge of a subject.
• noun A small number or amount of something.
• verb Present participle of smatter.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a small number or amount
• noun a slight or superficial understanding of a subject