minor

[[t]ma͟ɪnə(r)[/t]]

♦♦♦

minors, minoring, minored

1) ADJ-GRADED You use minor when you want to describe something that is less important, serious, or significant than other things in a group or situation.

She is known in Italy for a number of minor roles in films...

Western officials say the problem is minor, and should be quickly overcome.

Ant:

major

2) ADJ-GRADED: usu ADJ n A minor illness or operation is not likely to be dangerous to someone's life or health.

Sarah had been plagued continually by a series of minor illnesses since her mid teens...

His mother had to go to the hospital for minor surgery.

Ant:

major

3) ADJ: n ADJ, ADJ n In European music, a minor scale is one in which the third note is three semitones higher than the first.

...the unfinished sonata movement in F minor.

Ant:

major

4) N-COUNT A minor is a person who is still legally a child. In Britain and most states in the United States, people are minors until they reach the age of eighteen.

The approach has virtually ended cigarette sales to minors.

5) N-COUNT: oft poss N At a university or college in the United States, a student's minor is a subject that they are studying in addition to their main subject, or major.

Ant:

major

6) N-COUNT: n N At a university or college in the United States, if a student is, for example, a geology minor, they are studying geology as well as their main subject.

Ant:

major

7) VERB If a student at a university or college in the United States minors in a particular subject, they study it in addition to their main subject.

[V in n] I'm minoring in computer science.

Ant:

major