Mi|nor

mi|nor «MY nuhr», adjective, noun, verb.

–adj.

1. smaller; less important; lesser: »

a minor fault, a minor poet, a minor gain, a minor political party. Correct the important errors in your paper before you bother with the minor ones.

SYNONYM(S): subordinate, secondary, lower, inferior.

2. under legal age of responsibility.

3. Music. a) less by a half step than the corresponding major interval: »

a minor seventh, a minor chord.

b) denoting a scale, key, or mode whose third tone is minor in relation to the fundamental tone: »

the C minor scale or key.

4. U.S. of, having to do with, or designating a minor in education: »

a minor subject.

5. Logic. less broad; less extensive: »

a minor premise.

6. (in English boys' schools) of the younger (in age or standing) of two pupils who have the same surname.

–n.

1. a person under the legal age of responsibility. Under t varying laws of the States of the United States, a person may be a minor until he reaches 18 or 21.

2. Music. a minor key, scale, chord, or interval.

3. a subject or course of study to which a student gives much time and attention, but less than to his major subject: »

His minor is French; his major is English.

4. Mathematics. the determinant of next lower order in a matrix, obtained by crossing out the row and column containing the given element.

5. U.S. Sports. a minor league.

–v.i.

minor in, to have or take as a minor subject of study: »

He will minor in French.

╂[< Latin minor lesser, comparative of parvus small]

Mi|nor «MY nuhr», noun.

a member of the Friars Minor; Minorite.