Minor

¹

[mahy-ner]

noun

1. a male given name.

minor

²

[mahy-ner]

adjective

1. lesser, as in size, extent, or importance, or being or noting the lesser of two.

   a minor share.

   Synonyms: subordinate, secondary, inferior
   Antonyms: major

2. not serious, important, etc..

   a minor wound; a minor role.

3. having low rank, status, position, etc..

   a minor official.

   Synonyms: small, unimportant, petty

4. under the legal age of full responsibility.

5. Education.,  of or relating to a field of study constituting a student's minor.

6. Music.

   1. (of an interval) smaller by a chromatic half step than the corresponding major interval.

   2. (of a chord) having a minor third between the root and the note next above it.

7. of or relating 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

1. a person under the legal age of full responsibility.

   Synonyms: adolescent, child

2. a person of inferior rank or importance in a specified group, class, etc.

3. Education.

   1. a subject or a course of study pursued by a student, especially a candidate for a degree, subordinately or supplementarily to a major or principal subject or course.

   2. a subject for which less credit than a major is granted in college or, occasionally, in high school.

4. Music.,  a minor interval, chord, scale, etc.

5. Mathematics.,  the determinant of the matrix formed by crossing out the row and column containing a given element in a matrix.

6. (initial capital letter),  Friar Minor.

7. Sports.,  the minors, the minor leagues.

verb (used without object)

1. to choose or study as a secondary academic subject or course.

   to major in sociology and minor in art history.

minor

/ ˈmaɪnə /

adjective

1. lesser or secondary in amount, extent, importance, or degree

   a minor poet

   minor burns

2. of or relating to the minority

3. below the age of legal majority

4. music

   1. (of a scale) having a semitone between the second and third and fifth and sixth degrees ( natural minor ) See also harmonic minor scale melodic minor scale

   2. (of a key) based on the minor scale

   3. (postpositive) denoting a specified key based on the minor scale

      C minor

   4. (of an interval) reduced by a semitone from the major

   5. (of a chord, esp a triad) having a minor third above the root

   6. (esp in jazz) of or relating to a chord built upon a minor triad and containing a minor seventh See also minor key minor mode

      a minor ninth

5. logic (of a term or premise) having less generality or scope than another term or proposition

6. education of or relating to an additional secondary subject taken by a student

7. (immediately postpositive) the younger or junior: sometimes used after the surname of a schoolboy if he has an older brother in the same school

   Hunt minor

8. (postpositive) Leisure:Bell-ringing of, relating to, or denoting a set of changes rung on six bells

   grandsire minor

noun

1. a person or thing that is lesser or secondary

2. a person below the age of legal majority

3. education a subsidiary subject in which a college or university student needs fewer credits than in his or her major

4. music a minor key, chord, mode, or scale

5. logic a minor term or premise

6. maths

   1. a determinant associated with a particular element of a given determinant and formed by removing the row and column containing that element

   2. Also called: cofactor.  signed minor. the number equal to this reduced determinant

7. (capital) another name for Minorite

verb

1. education to take a minor

Word History and Origins

Origin of Minor¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Latin: “less, smaller”; akin to Old English min “small,” Old Norse minni “smaller,” Gothic minniza “younger,” Sanskrit mīnāti “(he) diminishes”

Word History and Origins

Origin of Minor¹

C13: from Latin: less, smaller; related to Old High German minniro smaller, Gothic minniza least, Latin minuere to diminish, Greek meiōn less

Example Sentences

WASHINGTON—Anybody who has remodeled a home knows that building regulations can slow down even the most minor projects, especially when a property has historic significance.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

OpenAI said strong protections for minors, especially in sensitive moments, is a top priority.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

But this is a minor quibble for a film that, like the “Nebraska” album itself, rightly dares to elevate the making of a solo acoustic record into high art.

Read more on Salon

No one at the school was hurt, but one person visiting the Atlas yard suffered a minor injury.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But he continued that the "minor role played by each" of them should have had a "powerful downward impact" on the sentences, and reduced each by two years.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• adolescent 
• baby 
• boy 
• child 
• girl 
• infant 
• junior 
• juvenile 
• teenager 
• youngster 
• youth