minor mode

American  

noun

Music.

1. a scale or key in which the third degree is a minor third above the tonic.

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minor mode British  

noun

1. music any arrangement of notes present in or characteristic of a minor scale or key

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Etymology

Origin of minor mode

First recorded in 1770–80

Example Sentences

The proposal says that the minor mode feature would try to prevent “internet addiction” by limiting children younger than 8 to 40 minutes of smartphone time a day.

From New York Times • Aug. 4, 2023

The CAC's proposal requires industry players including mobile phone device makers, apps and app stores to develop a function called "minor mode" to set usage limits - which vary by age.

From BBC • Aug. 3, 2023

"Monkeypox can be biologically transmitted through respiratory droplets, but is that what's driving the spread? Or is it a minor mode of transmission or is that a major mode of transmission?"

From Salon • Aug. 3, 2022

There is compassion to be found here in the minor mode that shades Blondchen’s line about maintaining dignity even when freedom is lost, but you have to take the time to reveal it.

From New York Times • Apr. 24, 2016

It is also often highly embroidered with chromatic notes; the Hungarian scale, with two augmented intervals, being an intensification of our minor mode, e.g.

From Music: An Art and a Language by Spalding, Walter Raymond