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minor

- 12 dictionary results

mi⋅nor

  [mahy-ner]
Use minor in a Sentence
–adjective
1. lesser, as in size, extent, or importance, or being or noting the lesser of two: a minor share.
2. not serious, important, etc.: a minor wound; a minor role.
3. having low rank, status, position, etc.: a minor official.
4. under the legal age of full responsibility.
5. Education. of or pertaining to a field of study constituting a student's minor.
6. Music.
a. (of an interval) smaller by a chromatic half step than the corresponding major interval.
b. (of a chord) having a minor third between the root and the note next above it.
7. of or pertaining to the minority.
8. (initial capital letter) (of two male students in an English public school who have the same surname) being the younger or lower in standing: Jackson Minor sits over here.
–noun
9. a person under the legal age of full responsibility.
10. a person of inferior rank or importance in a specified group, class, etc.
11. Education.
a. a subject or a course of study pursued by a student, esp. a candidate for a degree, subordinately or supplementarily to a major or principal subject or course.
b. a subject for which less credit than a major is granted in college or, occasionally, in high school.
12. Music. a minor interval, chord, scale, etc.
13. Mathematics. the determinant of the matrix formed by crossing out the row and column containing a given element in a matrix.
14. (initial capital letter) Friar Minor.
15. the minors, Sports. the minor leagues.
–verb (used without object)
16. to choose or study as a secondary academic subject or course: to major in sociology and minor in art history.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME < L: smaller, less; akin to OE min small, ON minni smaller, Goth minniza younger, Skt mīnāti (he) diminishes, destroys

Synonyms:
1. smaller, inferior, secondary, subordinate. 3. petty, unimportant, small. 9. child, adolescent.

Antonyms:
1. major.

Mi⋅nor

  [mahy-ner]
–noun
a male given name.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To minor
mi·nor   (mī'nər)   
adj.  
  1. Lesser or smaller in amount, extent, or size.
  2. Lesser in importance, rank, or stature: a minor politician.
  3. Lesser in seriousness or danger: a minor injury.
  4. Law Being under legal age; not yet a legal adult.
  5. Chiefly British Relating to or being the younger or junior of two pupils with the same surname.
  6. Of or relating to a secondary area of academic specialization.
  7. Logic Dealing with a more restricted category.
  8. Music
    1. Relating to or being a minor scale.
    2. Less in distance by a half step than the corresponding major interval.
    3. Based on a minor scale: a minor key.
n.  
  1. One that is lesser in comparison with others of the same class.
  2. Law One who has not reached full legal age.
    1. A secondary area of specialized academic study, requiring fewer courses or credits than a major.
    2. One studying in a secondary area of specialization: She is a physics minor.
    3. A minor premise.
    4. A minor term.
  4. Logic
    1. A minor premise.
    2. A minor term.
  5. Music A minor key, scale, or interval.
  6. minors Sports The minor leagues of a sport, especially baseball.
intr.v.   mi·nored, mi·nor·ing, mi·nors
To pursue academic studies in a minor field: minored in music.

[Middle English, from Latin; see mei-2 in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Minor

Mi"nor\, a. [L., a comparative with no positive; akin to AS. min small, G. minder less, OHG. minniro, a., min, adv., Icel. minni, a., minnr, adv., Goth. minniza, a., mins, adv., Ir. & Gael. min small, tender, L. minuere to lessen, Gr. ?, Skr. mi to damage. Cf. Minish, Minister, Minus, Minute.]

1. Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, etc.; less; smaller; of little account; as, minor divisions of a body.

2. (Mus.) Less by a semitone in interval or difference of pitch; as, a minor third.

Asia Minor (Geog.), the Lesser Asia; that part of Asia which lies between the Euxine, or Black Sea, on the north, and the Mediterranean on the south.

Minor mode (Mus.), that mode, or scale, in which the third and sixth are minor, -- much used for mournful and solemn subjects.

Minor orders (Eccl.), the rank of persons employed in ecclesiastical offices who are not in holy orders, as doorkeepers, acolytes, etc.

Minor scale (Mus.) The form of the minor scale is various. The strictly correct form has the third and sixth minor, with a semitone between the seventh and eighth, which involves an augmented second interval, or three semitones, between the sixth and seventh, as, ^6/F, ^7/G[sharp], ^8/A. But, for melodic purposes, both the sixth and the seventh are sometimes made major in the ascending, and minor in the descending, scale, thus: See Major.

Minor term of a syllogism (Logic), the subject of the conclusion.

Minor

Mi"nor\, n. 1. A person of either sex who has not attained the age at which full civil rights are accorded; an infant; in England and the United States, one under twenty-one years of age.

Note: In hereditary monarchies, the minority of a sovereign ends at an earlier age than of a subject. The minority of a sovereign of Great Britain ends upon the completion of the eighteenth year of his age.

2. (Logic) The minor term, that is, the subject of the conclusion; also, the minor premise, that is, that premise which contains the minor term; in hypothetical syllogisms, the categorical premise. It is the second proposition of a regular syllogism, as in the following: Every act of injustice partakes of meanness; to take money from another by gaming is an act of injustice; therefore, the taking of money from another by gaming partakes of meanness.

3. A Minorite; a Franciscan friar.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : minor
Spanish: menor,
German: kleiner,
Japanese: (より) 小さい
More Translations »

minor 
1212, from L. minor "lesser, smaller, junior," formed as a masc./fem. of minus on the mistaken assumption that minus was a neut. comparative (see minus), from PIE base *min- "small" (cf. L. minuere, Gk. minythein, O.E. minsian "to diminish," Skt. miyate "diminishes, declines," Rus. men'she "less"). Some Eng. usages are via O.Fr. menor, from L. minor. Meaning "under-age" (adj.) is from 1579; the noun meaning "under-aged person" is from 1612. The musical sense is from 1694. In U.S. colleges and universities, "subject of study with fewer credits than a major," it is attested from 1890. In the baseball sense, minor league is from 1884; the figurative extension is first recorded 1926.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: mi·nor
Function: noun
: a person who has not yet reached the age of majority —compare ADULT, JUVENILE, MAJOR

Main Entry: minor
Function: adjective
1 a : being less important or serious minor official> minor offense> b : involving, relating to, or dealing with less important matters
2 : having the status of a minor <minor children>
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Main Entry: 1mi·nor
Pronunciation: 'mI-n&r
Function: adjective
: not serious or involving risk to life <minor illness>minor operation> —compare MAJOR

Main Entry: 2minor
Function: noun
: a person of either sex under the age of legal qualification for adult rights and responsibilities that has traditionallybeen 21 in the U.S. but is now 18 in many states or sometimes less under certain circumstances (as marriage or pregnancy) minor, one ruleof thumb is to obtain written consent from both the minor and the parent or guardian from age 14 up to 21>
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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minor mi·nor (mī'nər)
adj.

  1. Lesser or smaller in amount, extent, or size.
  2. Lesser in seriousness or danger.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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minor

person below the legal age of majority or adulthood. The age of majority varies in different countries, and even in different jurisdictions within a country. It also differs with the type of activity concerned, such as marrying, purchasing alcohol, or driving an automobile. Twenty-one years is a common division between minors and adults.

Learn more about minor with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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