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• minor
  minor

  adjective

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

  noun

  a male given name.

minor

¹ American  

[mahy-ner] / ˈmaɪ nər /

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.

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noun

• minors
  plural

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)

• minors,
  present (3rd person singular)
• minored,
  past participle,  past
• minoring
  present participle

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

   to major in sociology and minor in art history.

Minor ² American  

[mahy-ner] / ˈmaɪ nər /

noun

1. a male given name.

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minor British  

/ 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

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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

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• minors
  plural

Participles

• minoring
  present
• minored
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• minor
  simple
• minors
  simple
• have minored
  perfect
• has minored
  perfect
• am minoring
  progressive
• are minoring
  progressive
• is minoring
  progressive
• have been minoring
  perfect progressive
• has been minoring
  perfect progressive

Past

• minored
  simple
• had minored
  perfect
• was minoring
  progressive
• were minoring
  progressive
• had been minoring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will minor
  simple
• will have minored
  perfect
• will be minoring
  progressive
• will have been minoring
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of minor

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”

Explanation

Something that's minor is considered of low importance — a minor injury is not very serious, and a college student's minor subject is a secondary field of study. Likewise, the star constellation Ursa Major is a larger grouping than Ursa Minor. The word minor has retained its spelling from the Latin. There, minor means something "lesser," and is related to the Latin word minuere, which means "to diminish." It is usually used as an adjective, but as a noun it gained the meaning "underage" in the 16th Century, and is now used to refer to children and teens under the age of legal responsibility. It is also used in musical terms to refer to a key that has a flatted third in its scale.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

minor Minor minors minored minoring

His first job as a teenager was as a minor league bat boy with the Pirates.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

They get in and out in under two hours, often starting as minor hits that become part of the cultural fabric through repetition; they’re on in the background and there when you need them.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026

ORR is the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency traditionally tasked with the care of unaccompanied minor migrants.

From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026

He had, however, faced medical emergencies and minor aircraft issues causing delays.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

After a few days of fun and education in Brussels, the Fischers were ready to leave, but not before a minor fracas occurred.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

The Daily Minor Planet project allows volunteers to help search for asteroids and comets that could potentially pose a threat to Earth.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

As part of the project “In Minor Keys,” Rosales is exhibiting pieces from her archive.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

In the 1740s, Johann Sebastian Bach smuggled his own surname into his Mass in B Minor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

He ultimately found a new job for the band, helping Sparta prosecute a campaign against the Persians in Asia Minor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

Grayson returned at noon, bearing zeps and sodas, and was not allowed to leave until he told Maniac one story about the Minor Leagues.

From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli

She said it is common for unaccompanied minors to appear in immigration courts.

From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026

OnScene Media reports that attendees appeared to be minors and were picked up by parents from the party.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026

Schools are coming up with a flurry of AI majors, minors, concentrations and certifications, which raises questions about what even counts as a strong AI program these days, Simpson noted.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026

Aylo said that updates to the Act requiring age verification had "not achieved its goal of protecting minors" and had "diverted traffic to darker, unregulated corners of the internet".

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

I told Sookie and Lester the chatter I’d heard on Mr. Patterson’s radio about the odds of the Sox calling up a shortstop from the minors named, Nomar Garciaparra.

From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen

“I’m a rule-follower,” said Fudge, who majored in mechanical engineering and minored in math.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026

Tabassum, a biomedical engineering major with a passion for social justice who minored in “resistance to genocide,” drew undisclosed threats to the university.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2024

I minored in women’s and gender studies as an undergraduate at New York University; as a law student at the same institution, I took courses in feminist jurisprudence and women’s rights in Islamic law.

From Slate ● Dec. 14, 2023

He majored in communications and minored in English, with a goal of anchoring “SportsCenter” someday.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 31, 2023

“I minored in Spanish in college, sweetheart. I did a semester here. It’s where I met your dad...You know this!”

From "Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish" by Pablo Cartaya

In 1992, I started at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in communications and minoring in theater.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026

“Right now, I’m a full-time student. I’m majoring in biology, minoring in computer science. My big goal is to become an astro microbiologist for NASA, so essentially looking for aliens.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2024

She is majoring in TV and film and minoring in political science, and she recently spent two weeks focused on final exams.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 26, 2023

After majoring in philosophy and minoring in religion, he graduated in 1972.

From New York Times ● Oct. 28, 2022

So Bushma — majoring in computing and security technology and minoring in psychology — keeps doing what she does best and wins at squash.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2022

Related Words

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