minor
Part of speech: adj
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: education
entertainment
government
graph-theory
human-sciences
law
lifestyle
logic
mathematics
medicine
music
philosophy
politics
sciences
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. Compare Latin minimum and minuō, Old High German minniro, Cornish minow.
Inflected forms:
form: more minor
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most minor
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: miner
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: maner
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: minore
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: minour
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: mynor
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: mynour
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: mynowr
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: mi
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: minors
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: minoring
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: minored
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: minored
pos: verb
tags: past
form: miner
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: maner
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: minore
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: minour
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: mynor
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: mynour
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: mynowr
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: mi
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option, particularly
pos: adj
examples: of minor importance
a minor poet
Here we se thre proposicions, or sentences, whereof the first is called Maior, that is to saie, the proposicion at large. the seconde is called Minor, that is to saie, the seuerall proposicion. the thirde is called conclusio.
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.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
examples: The defendant resides at 123 Fake Street with his partner and two minor children.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
sometimes
examples: She suffered a minor injury.
There was minor bruising.
He has a minor case of puppy love.
We now know on authority of Dr. Briggs that every case of vaccination is "a minor case of smallpox," and that every such case of smallpox "should be carefully watched until all danger is passed".
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
examples: The musical interval between C and E♭ is a minor third while C to E is a major third.
...a certaine Fraction, which may be the difference betwixt a Tone major and a Tone minor, which we nominate a Schism...
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
examples: Beethoven's melancholy Moonlight Sonata is scored in the key of C# minor, using the diatonic scale C♯, D♯, E, F♯, G♯, A, and B, but modulates throughout.
The minor mode of D is tender.
The first chorus: ‘Behold the Lamb of God’, with its dark minor chords, brings threatening clouds over us.
Modern harmonists are unwilling to acknowledge that the minor triad is less consonant than the major.
After harmony was introduced into music during the late Middle Ages, major and minor triads emerged as the principal chords. The major triad, as C E G, was regarded with especial favor, because it occurs naturally in the harmonic series, as on bugles, and can be expressed by the simple ratios, 4:5:6. A system of tuning for the diatonic scale known today as just intonation gained support in the 16th century, because its principal triads, C E G, F A C, and G B D, had these just ratios. But an important minor triad, D F A, is harsh in just intonation, and other unsatisfactory triads result when this tuning is extended to the complete chromatic scale.
The first voice of the fugue that Elizabeth had played... came to him, inverted mockingly and in a minor key.
[Tufnel] It's part of a trilogy, really, a musical trilogy that I'm doing in D... minor which I always find is really the saddest of all keys, really. I don't know why but it makes people weep instantly to play it... This piece is called "Lick My Love Pump".
He was a moralist in a minor key, more concerned that people should say ‘tinned peaches’ and not ‘tin peaches’, than that they should worry about nuclear disarmament.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
tags: Canada
US
examples: The minor requirements only involve about 20 hours of classes.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
examples: The minor term of John Stuart Mill's famous syllogism—usually mistakenly credited to Aristotle—is Socrates; the major term is mortal.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
tags: UK
dated
examples: He whipt her with a foxes taile, Barnes minor,
Espionage... was a field that had sophisticated itself since the distant time when Patullo Minor... had enthralled his school-fellows with his hazardous escapades.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
tags: historical
examples: The minor perfect mode was marked by one single line which crossed three spaces, and the longue was equal to three breves... The minor imperfect mode was marked by a line which crossed two spaces only, and its longue was equal only to two breves.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
tags: historical
examples: Josquin works in minor prolation—that is, works in which the signature indicates that a semibreve is equal to two minims, often have a 3 as a medial signature for a few measures, indicating that until the 3 is canceled by the reappearance of a sign for minor prolation, there are to be 3 minims to a semibreve.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: ...that the Minor part of the Lords might joyn with the Major part of the House of Commons...
In every other, the minor will be preferred by me to the major vote.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
examples: And whenever Dre tore her off some money, she always split it up between his kids. She would've felt real minor taking all his cash and spending it on herself, knowing how needy his babies were.
gloss: Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option
pos: adj
gloss: Used in a phrasal verb: minor in.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
Synonyms: insignificant and Thesaurus:small
Antonyms: major
antonym(s) of
Derived words: A-flat minor
A minor
A-sharp minor
B-flat minor
B minor
C minor
C-sharp minor
D minor
D-sharp minor
E-flat minor
E minor
F minor
F-sharp minor
G minor
graph minor
G-sharp minor
harmonic minor scale
in a minor key
labia minor
melodic minor scale
minor arcana
minorate
minor axis
minor canon
minor celebrity
minor child
minor chord
minor civil division
minor diagonal
minor diameter
Minoress
Minor Feast
minor interval
minorise
minorish
Minorite
minority
minorize
minor key
minor-league
minor league
minorly
minor miracle
minor mode
minor ninth
minor order
minor party
minor piece
minor planet
minor premier
minor premiers
minor premiership
minor premise
minor prophet
minor scale
minor second
minor sentence
minor seventh
minor seventh chord
minorship
minor sixth
minor subject
minor suit
minor syllable
minor term
minor thing
minor third
minor triad
natural minor scale
nonminor
pectoralis minor
psoas minor
rectus capitis posterior minor
rhomboid minor
semi-minor
semiminor
semi-minor axis
Sister Minor
St Bride's Minor
subminor
teres minor
United States minor outlying islands
zygomaticus minor
minoress
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: маловажен
roman: malovažen
lang: Bulgarian
word: второстепенен
roman: vtorostepenen
lang: Czech
word: vedlejší
lang: Danish
word: ubetydelig
lang: Dutch
word: minderjarig
lang: Dutch
word: licht
lang: Dutch
word: gering
lang: Dutch
word: onbelangrijk
lang: Esperanto
word: negrava
lang: Finnish
word: vähäinen
lang: Finnish
word: vähämerkityksinen
lang: French
word: mineur
lang: Friulian
word: minôr
lang: German
word: gering
lang: German
word: geringfügig
lang: German
word: klein
lang: German
word: unbedeutend
lang: German
word: untergeordnet
lang: German
word: nachgeordnet
lang: Greek
word: ελάσσων
roman: elásson
lang: Greek
word: ασήμαντος
roman: asímantos
lang: Greek
word: ήσσων
roman: ísson
lang: Hungarian
word: jelentéktelen
lang: Hungarian
word: lényegtelen
lang: Hungarian
word: másodlagos
lang: Hungarian
word: csekély
lang: Hungarian
word: mellékes
lang: Italian
word: minore
lang: Polish
word: pomniejszy
lang: Polish
word: drugorzędny
lang: Polish
word: poboczny
lang: Portuguese
word: menor
lang: Russian
word: незначи́тельный
roman: neznačítelʹnyj
lang: Russian
word: второстепе́нный
roman: vtorostepénnyj
lang: Scots
word: smaa
lang: Spanish
word: menor
lang: Swedish
word: smärre
lang: Turkish
word: ikincil
lang: Turkish
word: tâlî
lang: Ukrainian
word: незначни́й
roman: neznačnýj
lang: Ukrainian
word: другоря́дний
roman: druhorjádnyj
lang: Ukrainian
word: дрібни́й
roman: dribnýj