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Definitions for: Minor
[n] a young person of either sex (between birth and puberty); "she writes books for children"; "they're just kids"; "`tiddler' is a British term for youngsters"
[adj] limited in size or scope; "a small business"; "a newspaper with a modest circulation"; "small-scale plans"; "a pocket-size country"
[adj] inferior in number or size or amount; "a minor share of the profits"; "Ursa Minor"
[adj] lesser in scope or effect; "had minor differences"; "a minor disturbance"
[adj] (law) not of legal age; "minor children"
[adj] (music) of a scale or mode; "the minor keys"; "in B flat minor"
[adj] of your secondary field of academic concentration or specialization
[adj] of lesser importance or stature or rank; "a minor poet"; "had a minor part in the play"; "a minor official"; "many of these hardy adventurers were minor noblemen"; "minor back roads"
[adj] of lesser seriousness or danger; "suffered only minor injuries"; "some minor flooding"; "a minor tropical disturbance"
[adj] (theology) warranting only temporal punishment; "venial sin"
Webster (1913) Definition: Mi"nor, a. [L., a comparative with no positive; akin to
AS. min small, G. minder less, OHG. minniro, a., min, adv.,
Icel. minni, a., minnr, adv., Goth. minniza, a., mins, adv.,
Ir. & Gael. min small, tender, L. minuere to lessen, Gr. ?,
Skr. mi to damage. Cf. Minish, Minister, Minus,
Minute.]
1. Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, etc.; less; smaller;
of little account; as, minor divisions of a body.
2. (Mus.) Less by a semitone in interval or difference of
pitch; as, a minor third.
Asia Minor (Geog.), the Lesser Asia; that part of Asia
which lies between the Euxine, or Black Sea, on the north,
and the Mediterranean on the south.
Minor mode (Mus.), that mode, or scale, in which the third
and sixth are minor, -- much used for mournful and solemn
subjects.
Minor orders (Eccl.), the rank of persons employed in
ecclesiastical offices who are not in holy orders, as
doorkeepers, acolytes, etc.
Minor scale (Mus.) The form of the minor scale is various.
The strictly correct form has the third and sixth minor,
with a semitone between the seventh and eighth, which
involves an augmented second interval, or three semitones,
between the sixth and seventh, as, ^6/F, ^7/G[sharp],
^8/A. But, for melodic purposes, both the sixth and the
seventh are sometimes made major in the ascending, and
minor in the descending, scale, thus:
Mi"nor, n.
1. A person of either sex who has not attained the age at
which full civil rights are accorded; an infant; in
England and the United States, one under twenty-one years
of age.
Note: In hereditary monarchies, the minority of a sovereign
ends at an earlier age than of a subject. The minority
of a sovereign of Great Britain ends upon the
completion of the eighteenth year of his age.
2. (Logic) The minor term, that is, the subject of the
conclusion; also, the minor premise, that is, that premise
which contains the minor term; in hypothetical syllogisms,
the categorical premise. It is the second proposition of a
regular syllogism, as in the following: Every act of
injustice partakes of meanness; to take money from another
by gaming is an act of injustice; therefore, the taking of
money from another by gaming partakes of meanness.
3. A Minorite; a Franciscan friar.
Synonyms: child, fry, insignificant, kid, limited, modest, nestling, nipper, nonaged, pardonable, peanut, pocket-size, pocket-sized, secondary, shaver, small, small fry, small-scale, tiddler, tike, tyke, underage, venial, youngster
Antonyms: major
See Also: bairn, bambino, buster, changeling, child's body, foster-child, imp, juvenile, juvenile person, kiddy, monkey, orphan, picaninny, piccaninny, pickaninny, preschooler, pupil, rapscallion, rascal, scalawag, scallywag, scamp, schoolchild, silly, sprog, toddler, tot, urchin, waif, yearling
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