English Explanatory Dictionary

minor

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option, particularly
  2. Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
  3. Underage, not having reached legal majority.
  4. Not serious, not involving risk of death, permanent injury, dangerous surgery, or extended hospitalization.
  5. Smaller by a diatonic semitone than the equivalent major interval.
  6. Incorporating a minor third interval above the (in scales) tonic or (in chords) root note, (also figurative) tending to produce a dark, discordant, sad, or pensive effect.
  7. Of or related to a minor, a secondary area of undergraduate study.
  8. Of or related to a minor, a determinate obtained by deleting one or more rows and columns from a matrix.
  9. Acting as the subject of the second premise of a categorical syllogism, which then also acts as the subject of its conclusion.
  10. The younger of two pupils (or the middle of three) with the same surname.
  11. Of or related to the relationship between the longa and the breve in a score.
  12. Having semibreves twice as long as a minim.
noun
  1. A child, a person who has not reached the age of majority, consent, etc. and is legally subject to fewer responsibilities and less accountability and entitled to fewer legal rights and privileges.
  2. A lesser person or thing, a person, group, or thing of minor rank or in the minor leagues.
  3. Ellipsis of minor interval, minor scale, minor mode, minor key, minor chord, or minor triad.
  4. A formally recognized secondary area of undergraduate study, requiring fewer course credits than the equivalent major.
  5. A person who is completing or has completed such a course of study.
  6. A determinant of a square matrix obtained by deleting one or more rows and columns.
  7. Alternative letter-case form of Minor: a Franciscan friar, a Clarist nun.
  8. Ellipsis of minor term or minor premise.
  9. Ellipsis of minor league (“the lower level of teams”).
  10. Ellipsis of minor penalty (“a penalty requiring a player to leave the ice for 2 minutes unless the opposing team scores”).
  11. Synonym of behind: a one-point kick.
  12. Ellipsis of minor point (“a lesser score formerly gained by certain actions”).
verb
  1. Used in a phrasal verb: minor in.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/ˈmaɪ.nəɹ/ /ˈmaɪnə/ en-us-minor.ogg

Word forms

minor more minor most minor miner maner minore minour mynor mynour mynowr mi minors minoring minored

Etymology

From Middle English minor, menor, menour, etc., from Latin minor (“lesser; young; young person”) both directly and via Norman and Middle French menor, menour, etc. Doublet of minus but not mini-. Cognate with minister, minify, Minorca, Menshevik, and possibly minnow. Compare Latin minimum and minuō, Old High German minniro, Cornish minow.

Synonyms

insignificant and Thesaurus:small behind subtrahend

Antonyms

major antonym(s) of

Derived words

A-flat minor A minor A-sharp minor B-flat minor B minor C minor C-sharp minor D minor D-sharp minor E-flat minor E minor F minor F-sharp minor G minor graph minor G-sharp minor harmonic minor scale in a minor key labia minor melodic minor scale minor arcana minorate minor axis minor canon minor celebrity minor child minor chord minor civil division minor diagonal minor diameter Minoress Minor Feast minor interval minorise minorish Minorite minority minorize minor key minor-league minor league minorly minor miracle minor mode minor ninth minor order minor party minor piece minor planet minor premier minor premiers minor premiership minor premise minor prophet minor scale minor second minor sentence minor seventh minor seventh chord minorship

Translations

Bulgarian: маловажен Bulgarian: второстепенен Czech: vedlejší Danish: ubetydelig Dutch: minderjarig Dutch: licht Dutch: gering Dutch: onbelangrijk Esperanto: negrava Finnish: vähäinen Finnish: vähämerkityksinen French: mineur Friulian: minôr German: gering German: geringfügig German: klein German: unbedeutend German: untergeordnet German: nachgeordnet Greek: ελάσσων Greek: ασήμαντος Greek: ήσσων Hungarian: jelentéktelen Hungarian: lényegtelen Hungarian: másodlagos Hungarian: csekély Hungarian: mellékes Italian: minore Polish: pomniejszy Polish: drugorzędny Polish: poboczny Portuguese: menor Russian: незначи́тельный Russian: второстепе́нный Scots: smaa Spanish: menor Swedish: smärre Turkish: ikincil Turkish: tâlî Ukrainian: незначни́й Ukrainian: другоря́дний Ukrainian: дрібни́й
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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