A major

American

[ay may-jer] / ˈeɪ ˈmeɪ dʒər /

noun

Music. the key that has A as the tonic or first note of its scale and is represented by a key signature having three sharps.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

A major fire at Viva Energy’s Geelong oil refinery in Australia heightened concerns about the country’s oil product supply.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

A major fire has broken out at one of Australia's two oil refineries, deepening fears over the nation's petrol supplies amid a global fuel crunch.

From BBC • Apr. 15, 2026

A major debt restructuring, that gave a non-cash boost to the bottom line, and helped the company’s balance sheet, came at a huge cost to shareholders.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 12, 2026

A major new research effort is set to shed light on a remarkable Roman discovery in Frankfurt, Germany.

From Science Daily • Apr. 5, 2026

A major reason is that Aborigines remained hunter-gatherers, whereas, as we saw in Chapters 12-14, those developments arose elsewhere only in populous and economically specialized societies of food producers.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023