Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Lesser or smaller in amount, extent, or size.
- adjective Lesser in importance, rank, or stature.
- adjective Lesser in seriousness or danger.
- adjective Law Not having reached legal adulthood.
- adjective Chiefly British Relating to or being the younger or junior of two pupils with the same surname.
- adjective Of or relating to a secondary area of academic specialization.
- adjective Logic Dealing with a more restricted category.
- adjective Relating to or being a minor scale.
- adjective Less in distance by a half step than the corresponding major interval.
- adjective Based on a minor scale.
- noun One that is lesser in comparison with others of the same class.
- noun Law One who has not reached legal adulthood.
- noun A secondary area of specialized academic study, requiring fewer courses or credits than a major.
- noun One studying in a secondary area of specialization.
- noun A minor premise.
- noun A minor term.
- noun Music A minor key, scale, or interval.
- noun Sports The minor leagues of a sport, especially baseball.
- intransitive verb To pursue academic studies in a minor field.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Smaller (than the other); less; lesser: applied definitively to one of two units or parts, and opposed to major or greater: as, the minor axis of an ellipse: the minor premise of a syllogism; the minor part of an estate.
- Smaller than others; of inferior rank or degree; lower; hence, small; inconsiderable; not capital, serious, or weighty: as, the minor officers of government; a minor canon; the minor points of an argument; minor faults or considerations.
- Under age.
- In music: Of intervals, less; shorter; smaller (as compared with major intervals).
- Of tonalities and scales, characterized by a minor third and also usually by a minor sixth, and often a minor seventh: opposed to major. See key, tonality, scale
- of triads and chords generally, characterized by a minor third between the lowest and the next to the lowest tones: opposed to major. See
triad , and chord - Of modes, characterized by the use of a minor tonality and of minor cadences: as, the piece is written throughout in the minor mode: opposed to major. See
major - noun A person of either sex who is under age; one who is of less than the legal age for the performance of certain acts; one under the authority of parents or guardians, because of not having reached the age at which the law permits one to make contracts and manage one's own property; an infant in the legal sense
- noun In logic, the minor term, or the minor premise. See I.
- noun In music, the minor mode or a minor tonality or minor chord taken absolutely.
- noun [capitalized] A Franciscan friar; a Minorite: so called from a name of the Franciscan order, Fratres Minores, or Lesser Brethren. Also called
Friar Minor .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun 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.
- noun (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.
- noun A Minorite; a Franciscan friar.
- adjective Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, etc.; less; smaller; of little account.
- adjective (Mus.) Less by a semitone in interval or difference of pitch.
- adjective (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.
- adjective (Mus.) that mode, or scale, in which the third and sixth are minor, -- much used for mournful and solemn subjects.
- adjective (Eccl.) the rank of persons employed in ecclesiastical offices who are not in holy orders, as doorkeepers, acolytes, etc.
- adjective (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♯, 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: --
[1913 Webster]
[1913 Webster]
See
Major . - adjective (Logic) the subject of the conclusion.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of little significance or importance.
- adjective music Of a
scale which has lowered scale degrees three, six, and seven relative tomajor , but with the sixth and seventh not always lowered - adjective music being the smaller of the two
intervals denoted by the sameordinal number - noun A person who is below the
legal age ofresponsibility oraccountability . - noun A subject area of secondary concentration of a
student at acollege oruniversity , or the student who has chosen such a secondary concentration. - noun mathematics
determinant of asquare submatrix - verb To choose or have an area of secondary concentration as a
student in acollege oruniversity .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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A minor scale beginning with the same tone as a major scale is referred to as its _tonic minor_.
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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A _minor triad_ has a minor third and a perfect fifth, _i. e.
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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A minor scale having the same signature as a major scale is said to be its _relative minor_.
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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E [flat], d of F, etc., the small letter being used to refer to the minor key or scale, while the capital letter indicates the major key or scale unless accompanied by the word _minor_.
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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This interval between the first and third tones consists of four half-steps in the major scale and of three half-steps in the minor scale and this difference in size has given rise to the designation _major_ for the scale having the larger third, and _minor_ for the scale having the smaller one.
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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Opera [/] (? 'version' (? 'major'\d+) (?' minor'\. \d+) (? 'letters'\w*)) the values' version ',' major 'and' minor 'will be set as' 7.23 ',' 7 'and' .23 'respectively.
The Code Project Latest Articles Chris Maunder 2009
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A _minor third_ has one minor and one major second (_i. e.
Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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The term minor only means that their books are short.
Saints & Scoundrels of the Bible Linda Chaffee Taylor 2008
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The term minor only means that their books are short.
Saints & Scoundrels of the Bible Linda Chaffee Taylor 2008
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In reference to persons, certain uses of the word minor may also be mentioned which depend upon usage rather than upon law: the younger of two persons of the same name is sometimes called minor (or "the less") as St. James the Less.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 10: Mass Music-Newman 1840-1916 1913
moore4th commented on the word minor
the meeting was minor
February 15, 2007
moore4th commented on the word minor
Rachle has minor hair.
February 15, 2007
moore4th commented on the word minor
It was a minor storm.
February 15, 2007
moore4th commented on the word minor
I have a minor problem
February 15, 2007
moore4th commented on the word minor
That is a little ant bite,little also means minor.
February 15, 2007
moore4th commented on the word minor
Gracie has a minor promblem.
February 15, 2007
moore4th commented on the word minor
I had a minor mascara problem.
February 15, 2007
moore4th commented on the word minor
We have a minor problem. By Daniel.
February 15, 2007
moore4th commented on the word minor
There is a major promblem at recess.
February 15, 2007