Adjacent Words

minor definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: of lesser importance or stature or rank; "a minor poet"; "had a minor part in the play"; "a minor official"; "many of these hardy adventurers were minor noblemen"; "minor back roads" [ant: major]
2: lesser in scope or effect; "had minor differences"; "a minor disturbance" [ant: major]
3: inferior in number or size or amount; "a minor share of the profits"; "Ursa Minor" [ant: major]
4: of a scale or mode; "the minor keys"; "in B flat minor" [ant: major]
5: not of legal age; "minor children" [syn: minor, nonaged, underage] [ant: major]
6: of lesser seriousness or danger; "suffered only minor injuries"; "some minor flooding"; "a minor tropical disturbance" [ant: major]
7: of your secondary field of academic concentration or specialization [ant: major]
8: of the younger of two boys with the same family name; "Jones minor"
9: warranting only temporal punishment; "venial sin" [syn: minor, venial]
10: limited in size or scope; "a small business"; "a newspaper with a modest circulation"; "small-scale plans"; "a pocket- size country" [syn: minor, modest, small, small- scale, pocket-size, pocket-sized] n
1: a young person of either sex; "she writes books for children"; "they're just kids"; "`tiddler' is a British term for youngster" [syn: child, kid, youngster, minor, shaver, nipper, small fry, tiddler, tike, tyke, fry, nestling]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Latin, smaller, inferior; akin to Old High German minniro smaller, Latin minuere to lessen Date: 1526 1. inferior in importance, size, or degree ; comparatively unimportant 2. not having reached majority 3. a. having half steps between the second and third, the fifth and sixth, and sometimes the seventh and eighth degrees <minor scale> b. based on a minor scale <minor key> c. less by a semitone than the corresponding major interval <minor third> d. having a minor third above the root <minor triad> 4. not serious or involving risk to life <minor illness> 5. of or relating to an academic subject requiring fewer courses than a major II. noun Date: 1612 1. a person who has not attained majority 2. a minor musical interval, scale, key, or mode 3. a. a minor academic subject b. a student taking a specified minor 4. a determinant or matrix obtained from a given determinant or matrix by eliminating the row and column in which a given element lies 5. plural minor league baseball — used with the III. intransitive verb Date: 1926 to take courses in a minor subject

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj., n., & v. --adj. 1 lesser or comparatively small in size or importance (minor poet; minor operation). 2 Mus. a (of a scale) having intervals of a semitone between the second and third, fifth and sixth, and seventh and eighth degrees. b (of an interval) less by a semitone than a major interval. c (of a key) based on a minor scale, tending to produce a melancholy effect. 3 Brit. (in schools) indicating the younger of two children from the same family or the second to enter the school (usu. put after the name). 4 Logic a (of a term) occurring as the subject of the conclusion of a categorical syllogism. b (of a premiss) containing the minor term in a categorical syllogism. --n. 1 a person under the legal age limit or majority (no unaccompanied minors). 2 Mus. a minor key etc. 3 US a student's subsidiary subject or course (cf. MAJOR). 4 Logic a minor term or premiss. --v.intr. (foll. by in) US (of a student) undertake study in (a subject) as a subsidiary to a main subject. Phrases and idioms: in a minor key (of novels, events, people's lives, etc.) understated, uneventful. minor axis Geom. (of a conic) the axis perpendicular to the major axis. minor canon a cleric who is not a member of the chapter, who assists in daily cathedral services. minor league US (in baseball, football, etc.) a league of professional clubs other than the major leagues. minor orders see ORDER. minor piece Chess a bishop or a knight. minor planet an asteroid. minor prophet any of the prophets from Hosea to Malachi, whose surviving writings are not lengthy. minor suit Bridge diamonds or clubs. Etymology: L, = smaller, less, rel. to minuere lessen

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Minor Mi"nor, n. 1. A person of either sex who has not attained the age at which full civil rights are accorded; an infant; in England and the United States, one under twenty-one years of age. Note: In hereditary monarchies, the minority of a sovereign ends at an earlier age than of a subject. The minority of a sovereign of Great Britain ends upon the completion of the eighteenth year of his age. 2. (Logic) The minor term, that is, the subject of the conclusion; also, the minor premise, that is, that premise which contains the minor term; in hypothetical syllogisms, the categorical premise. It is the second proposition of a regular syllogism, as in the following: Every act of injustice partakes of meanness; to take money from another by gaming is an act of injustice; therefore, the taking of money from another by gaming partakes of meanness. 3. A Minorite; a Franciscan friar.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Minor Mi"nor, a. [L., a comparative with no positive; akin to AS. min small, G. minder less, OHG. minniro, a., min, adv., Icel. minni, a., minnr, adv., Goth. minniza, a., mins, adv., Ir. & Gael. min small, tender, L. minuere to lessen, Gr. ?, Skr. mi to damage. Cf. Minish, Minister, Minus, Minute.] 1. Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, etc.; less; smaller; of little account; as, minor divisions of a body. 2. (Mus.) Less by a semitone in interval or difference of pitch; as, a minor third. Asia Minor (Geog.), the Lesser Asia; that part of Asia which lies between the Euxine, or Black Sea, on the north, and the Mediterranean on the south. Minor mode (Mus.), that mode, or scale, in which the third and sixth are minor, -- much used for mournful and solemn subjects. Minor orders (Eccl.), the rank of persons employed in ecclesiastical offices who are not in holy orders, as doorkeepers, acolytes, etc. Minor scale (Mus.) The form of the minor scale is various. The strictly correct form has the third and sixth minor, with a semitone between the seventh and eighth, which involves an augmented second interval, or three semitones, between the sixth and seventh, as, ^6/F, ^7/G[sharp], ^8/A. But, for melodic purposes, both the sixth and the seventh are sometimes made major in the ascending, and minor in the descending, scale, thus:

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(minors, minoring, minored) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. You use minor when you want to describe something that is less important, serious, or significant than other things in a group or situation. She is known in Italy for a number of minor roles in films... Western officials say the problem is minor, and should be quickly overcome. ? major ADJ 2. A minor illness or operation is not likely to be dangerous to someone's life or health. Sarah had been plagued continually by a series of minor illnesses... His mother had to go to the hospital for minor surgery. ? major ADJ: usu ADJ n 3. In European music, a minor scale is one in which the third note is three semitones higher than the first. ...the unfinished sonata movement in F minor. ? major ADJ: n ADJ, ADJ n 4. A minor is a person who is still legally a child. In Britain and most states in the United States, people are minors until they reach the age of eighteen. The approach has virtually ended cigarette sales to minors. N-COUNT 5. At a university or college in the United States, a student's minor is a subject that they are studying in addition to their main subject, or major. ? major N-COUNT: oft poss N 6. At a university or college in the United States, if a student is, for example, a geology minor, they are studying geology as well as their main subject. ? major N-COUNT: n N 7. If a student at a university or college in the United States minors in a particular subject, they study it in addition to their main subject. I'm minoring in computer science. ? major VERB: V in n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Less, smaller. 2. Inferior, subordinate. 3. Inconsiderable, petty, unimportant, small. II. n.; (also minorite) Franciscan friar.

Moby Thesaurus

academic specialty, adolescent, area, average, baby, back-burner, boy, budding, callow, casual, child, classical education, common, core curriculum, course, course of study, curriculum, demeaning, dependent, dewy, dinky, disadvantaged, discipline, dispensable, dominant, elective, fair, field, fledgling, general education, general studies, girl, green, growing, hopeful, humanities, humble, immaterial, immature, impubic, in the shade, inappreciable, inconsequential, inconsiderable, indifferent, inessential, inexperienced, infant, inferior, infra dig, ingenuous, innocent, insignificant, intact, irrelevant, juicy, junior, juvenal, juvenile, key, key signature, keynote, lad, laddie, lass, lassie, less, lesser, liberal arts, light, little, low, lower, lowly, major, major key, mediant, mediocre, medium, middling, minute, modest, naive, negligible, new-fledged, nonessential, not vital, obscure, one-horse, ordinary, paltry, pedal point, petit, petty, picayune, piddling, proseminar, pubescent, quadrivium, raw, refresher course, ripening, sapling, sappy, schoolboy, schoolgirl, scientific education, second rank, second string, second-rate, secondary, seminar, servile, shoestring, slight, slip, small, small-beer, small-fry, small-time, smaller, specialty, sprig, stripling, study, sub, subaltern, subdiscipline, subdominant, subject, submediant, subordinate, subservient, subsidiary, subtonic, supertonic, technical, technical education, teenager, teener, teenybopper, tender, third rank, third string, tonality, tonic, tonic key, trifling, trivial, trivium, two-bit, unadult, underage, underprivileged, undeveloped, undistinguished, unessential, unfledged, unformed, unimportant, unimpressive, unlicked, unmellowed, unnoteworthy, unnoticeable, unripe, unseasoned, vernal, virginal, vulgar, ward, young hopeful, young person, younger, youngest, youngling, youngster, youth