lesser, as in size, extent, or importance, or being or noting the lesser of two.
a minor share.
not serious, important, etc..
a minor wound; a minor role.
having low rank, status, position, etc..
a minor official.
under the legal age of full responsibility.
Education. of or relating to a field of study constituting a student's minor.
Music.
(of an interval) smaller by a chromatic half step than the corresponding major interval.
(of a chord) having a minor third between the root and the note next above it.
of or relating to the minority.
(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.
a person under the legal age of full responsibility.
a person of inferior rank or importance in a specified group, class, etc.
Education.
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.
a subject for which less credit than a major is granted in college or, occasionally, in high school.
Music. a minor interval, chord, scale, etc.
Mathematics. the determinant of the matrix formed by crossing out the row and column containing a given element in a matrix.
(initial capital letter) Friar Minor.
Sports. the minors, the minor leagues.
lesser or secondary in amount, extent, importance, or degree
a minor poet
minor burns
of or relating to the minority
below the age of legal majority
music
(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
(of a key) based on the minor scale
(postpositive) denoting a specified key based on the minor scale
C minor
(of an interval) reduced by a semitone from the major
(of a chord, esp a triad) having a minor third above the root
(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
logic (of a term or premise) having less generality or scope than another term or proposition
education of or relating to an additional secondary subject taken by a student
(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
(postpositive) Leisure:Bell-ringing of, relating to, or denoting a set of changes rung on six bells
grandsire minor
a person or thing that is lesser or secondary
a person below the age of legal majority
education a subsidiary subject in which a college or university student needs fewer credits than in his or her major
music a minor key, chord, mode, or scale
logic a minor term or premise
maths
a determinant associated with a particular element of a given determinant and formed by removing the row and column containing that element
Also called: cofactor. signed minor. the number equal to this reduced determinant
(capital) another name for Minorite
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”
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Of the firefighters taken to hospital, four had minor injuries.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
“Friends, I know that paper leak isn’t a minor issue; it’s very painful for millions of students and their guardians,” he said in a separate video.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
A minor league team plans to launch in Irvine next year, and the entrepreneur behind it is pitching it as a way to provide fans with a taste of Asian baseball.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
That’s a passive-aggressive approach that looks like this: sending the boss updates every 30 minutes, asking questions you already know the answer to and emailing summaries of every minor meeting or interaction.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Notice that the pattern for minor scales overlaps the pattern for major scales.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Minor Food’s parent, Minor International, is a conglomerate whose businesses span hospitality and lifestyle sectors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
I was an outfielder in the Braves Minor League system until I was brought up to the majors on Sept. 7, 1968.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
A few months earlier, Gatto met Ian after attending his previous band, the Minor Threat and Circle Jerks cover band Minor Jerk Brains’ show.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
"Minor damage has been recorded at the sites where debris fell," Mayor Sergei Sobyanin posted on Telegram.
From Barron's ● May 17, 2026
“I found it this morning, along with many other missing things, beneath the floorboards in the Ursa Minor Tower. I have the culprit trapped in my satchel.”
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
That setting also allows content posted by older minors to be recommended through TikTok’s For You feed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
This time around, Hernández told the Times that he’s not going so he can focus on a rehabilitation stint in the minors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
"We urge the public not to disseminate related information, to reject cyberbullying, and to work together to create a good environment for the growth of minors," reads an official statement.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
The regulations also ban virtual relationships with minors and require companies to alert a person’s emergency contact if they detect an emotional crisis.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
“Geez. Look at it this way. If you add our ages together, we're not minors; we're one adult. Freebie isn't a pet. He’s a hotel guest and family member. And I showered after basketball.”
From "Millionaires for the Month" by Stacey McAnulty
He is a St. Louis native and graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he majored in journalism and minored in art history and archeology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
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
Instead, they majored in communications and minored in fine arts at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2022
“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
There, I was a drama major, minoring in a little bit of everything.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2025
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
A communications major minoring in queer studies, Hartmann, who uses they/them pronouns, has joined protests in support of abortion access because they feel the fight centers on having autonomy over their own body.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2022
Hensien is majoring in marketing and minoring in entrepreneurship and expects to get her degree this summer.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 28, 2022
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
