minor
Forms
- Comparative
- more minor
- Superlative
- most minor
- Plural
- minors
- present (v1)
- minor
- past (v2)
- minored
- past participle (v3)
- minored
- present participle
- minoring
- 3rd person singular
- minors
Definitions
1.Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option, particularly
- It is my intention to wait a few years before I publish any minor poems.
- There is now such an immense "microliterature" on hepatics that, beyond a certain point I have given up trying to integrate (and evaluate) every minor paper published, especially narrowly floristic papers.
2.Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
- The minor mode of D is tender.
- He has a minor case of puppy love.
- The minor requirements only involve about 20 hours of classes.
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.
- He was only a minor when he succeeded his father to the barony.
- King Richard the second.. for the first tenne yeares of his raigne, was a Minor.
- No, he can't get a mortgage or sell the house. He's still a minor. For the most part, he can't sign a legally binding contract.
2.A formally recognized secondary area of undergraduate study, requiring fewer course credits than the equivalent major.
- I got a minor in English Lit.
3.A lesser person or thing, a person, group, or thing of minor rank or in the minor leagues.
- The play is considered one of his minors.
- She hasn't won a minor since the Sichuan Open.
- Mr Gloss'em, who is a shining character in the theatrical world, at least among the minors [minor theaters] of the metropolis.
4.Ellipsis of minor interval, minor scale, minor mode, minor key, minor chord, or minor triad.
1.Used in a phrasal verb: minor in.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #2718
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
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.