minors

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of minor.

   Local law bars the sale of fireworks to minors.

   The judge ordered that the minors remain in their guardian's care.

   Note

   One plural serves every noun meaning of minor. It covers young people below the age of majority or consent, lesser players or things of lower rank, the determinants left when rows and columns are deleted from a matrix, and, in the US and Canada, secondary fields of undergraduate study. Context sorts them, so a ban on sales to minors can only mean young people. The same spelling also serves as the academic verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of minor.

   She minors in linguistics alongside her main degree in computer science.

   He majors in economics and minors in statistics.

   Note

   A verb that never stands alone: it is intransitive and always takes in before the field, so a student minors in statistics, never minors statistics. It grows out of the academic noun, a secondary area of study recognized at US and Canadian universities, and it usually travels with its partner majors in, as in someone who majors in economics and minors in statistics.

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