/muy"neuhr/ , adj.
1. lesser, as in size, extent, or importance, or being or noting the lesser of two: a minor share.
2. not serious, important, etc.: a minor wound; a minor role.
3. having low rank, status, position, etc.: a minor official.
4. under the legal age of full responsibility.
5. Educ. of or pertaining to a field of study constituting a student's minor.
6. Music.
a. (of an interval) smaller by a chromatic half step than the corresponding major interval.
b. (of a chord) having a minor third between the root and the note next above it.
7. of or pertaining to the minority.
8. ( cap. ) (of two male students in an English public school who have the same surname) being the younger or lower in standing: Jackson Minor sits over here.
n.
9. a person under the legal age of full responsibility.
10. a person of inferior rank or importance in a specified group, class, etc.
11. Educ.
a. a subject or a course of study pursued by a student, esp. a candidate for a degree, subordinately or supplementarily to a major or principal subject or course.
b. a subject for which less credit than a major is granted in college or, occasionally, in high school.
12. Music. a minor interval, chord, scale, etc.
13. Math. the determinant of the matrix formed by crossing out the row and column containing a given element in a matrix.
14. ( cap. ) See Friar Minor .
15. the minors , Sports. the minor leagues.
v.i.
16. to choose or study as a secondary academic subject or course: to major in sociology and minor in art history.
[ 1250-1300; ME min small, ON minni smaller, Goth minniza younger, Skt minati (he) diminishes, destroys ]
Syn. 1. smaller, inferior, secondary, subordinate. 3. petty, unimportant, small. 9. child, adolescent.
Ant. 1. major.