# minor

Pronunciation: US say "MY-nur" /ˈmaɪ.nəɹ/; UK say "MY-nuh" /ˈmaɪnə/

## Adjective

1. Lesser in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or merit than others; not serious, as of an injury or an operation.
   - Simple: Small, or less important, serious, or good than other things of the same kind.
   - _The film received only minor edits before its release._
   - _Her injuries were minor compared to those of the driver._
5. In music, of an interval a semitone smaller than the matching major one, or of a scale, key, or chord built on a minor third, often sounding sad.
   - Simple: In music, describing a key, chord, or gap between notes that often sounds sad or dark.
   - _The composer set the lament in a minor key to heighten its grief._
   - _A sudden minor chord darkened the otherwise cheerful melody._
6. Underage; not yet having reached the legal age of adulthood.
   - Simple: Too young in law to be treated as an adult.
   - _The court appointed a guardian to manage the inheritance left to the two minor heirs._
   - _Minor defendants are usually tried in a separate juvenile system._
10. Relating to a secondary area of undergraduate study, smaller than the student's main subject. *(Canada, US)*
   - Simple: About a student's smaller second subject in college.
   - _He completed the minor requirements alongside his engineering degree._
   - _Her minor concentration in Spanish required only four courses._

## Noun

2. A person who has not reached the age of majority, with fewer legal rights and responsibilities than an adult.
   - Simple: A young person who is not yet a legal adult and has fewer rights.
   - _As a minor, she needed her parents' consent to undergo the operation._
   - _The court sealed the records to protect the minors involved._
3. Ellipsis of minor league: the lower levels of professional baseball and some other sports, almost always as the minors. — Ellipsis of minor league (“the lower level of teams”).
   - Simple: Short for minor league. The lower levels of pro sports, where players play before reaching the top league.
   - _A strong season in the minors earned him a big-league contract._
   - _Scouts watch the minors closely for rising talent._
4. A formally recognized secondary field of undergraduate study, requiring fewer credits than the major. *(Canada, US)*
   - Simple: A smaller second subject you study in college, with fewer classes than your main one.
   - _She paired her biology major with a minor in statistics._
   - _Completing the minor required only six additional courses._
7. In music, short for minor key, minor mode, minor scale, minor chord or minor interval, with the noun left understood, as in a shift into the minor.
   - Simple: In music, a minor key, scale, chord or interval, when the word minor is used on its own.
   - _Of the two thirds stacked in that chord, the lower is the major and the upper the minor._
   - _After the bright opening theme, the composer turns abruptly to the minor, and the whole mood darkens._
9. A person, group, or thing of lesser rank or importance than another.
   - Simple: A person or thing that is lower in rank or less important than others.
11. A student who is completing or has completed a secondary field of undergraduate study. *(Canada, US)*
   - Simple: A student who is studying or has studied a smaller second subject in college.
   - _As a Spanish minor, he spent a semester abroad in Seville._
   - _The department advises its minors separately from its majors._
12. Short for minor penalty: in ice hockey, two minutes in the penalty box, ended early if the other team scores on the resulting power play. — Ellipsis of minor penalty (“a penalty requiring a player to leave the ice for 2 minutes unless the opposing team scores”).
   - Simple: Short for minor penalty. In hockey, a player must leave the ice for two minutes.
   - _Two players sat in the box after taking a minor each in the first period._
   - _Late in the third period, a careless minor for tripping sent him to the box and handed the other team a power play._

## Verb

8. To pursue a subject as a secondary field of undergraduate study, used with the particle in.
   - Simple: To study a subject as your smaller second subject in college.
   - _Many engineering students minor in business to broaden their options._
   - _Although she is majoring in chemistry, she decided to minor in Spanish so she could work abroad._

## Adjective

13. In British school usage, denoting the younger of two pupils, or the middle of three, who share a surname. *(dated, UK)*
   - Simple: Used after a name in some British schools to mark the younger of two pupils with the same last name.
   - _Carter minor reported to the prefects' room while his older brother waited outside._
   - _On the team sheet, Wells minor was listed a line below Wells major._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The determinant of a smaller square matrix formed by deleting one or more rows and columns from a matrix.
- (adjective) Relating to a minor of a matrix, the determinant found after removing one or more of its rows and columns.
- (noun) Short for minor term or minor premise: in logic, the term that is the subject of a syllogism's conclusion, or the premise that contains it.
- (adjective) In logic, designating the subject term of a categorical syllogism's conclusion, or the premise containing it.
- (noun) Short for minor suit: in bridge, either of the two lower-ranking suits, clubs or diamonds, or a player's cards in one of them.
- (noun) In Australian rules football, a one-point score, also called a behind.
- (noun) Any of various noctuid moths found in Europe and Asia, chiefly in the genera Oligia and Mesoligia.
- (noun) In a leaf-cutter ant colony, a worker sized between the smaller minims and the larger medias.
- (noun) In change ringing, a series of changes rung on six bells.
- (noun) Short for graph minor: in graph theory, a graph obtainable from another graph by zero or more vertex deletions, edge deletions, or edge contractions.
- (adjective) In early music notation, relating to the relationship between the longa and the breve in a score.
- (adjective) In early music notation, having semibreves twice as long as a minim.
- (adjective) Belonging to or connected with a political party that holds fewer seats or votes than the majority.
- (noun) A smaller score once awarded for certain plays in a game, short for minor point.
- (noun) In older law, a young person who has passed the legally fixed puberty age but is not yet a full adult.
- (noun) In arithmetic, the number that is taken away from another, now called the subtrahend.
- (noun) In British schools, the younger of two brothers attending the same school.

## Origin

From Middle English "minor," "menor," from Latin "minor" ("lesser; young; young person"), coming both directly and through Norman and Middle French forms like "menor" and "menour." It is a doublet of "minus" and is related to words such as "minister" and "minify," and possibly "minnow."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/minor (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).