minor

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Of lesser importance or stature or rank.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

myner

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmaɪnɚ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

Of lesser importance or stature or rank
Lesser, smaller in importance, size, degree, seriousness, or significance compared to another option, particularly
law
Underage, not having reached legal majority.
law
Not of legal age
Having little worth or ability; paltry; mean.
medicinesometimes figurative
Not serious, not involving risk of death, permanent injury, dangerous surgery, or extended hospitalization.

noun

A lesser person or thing, a person, group, or thing of minor rank or in the minor leagues.
A young person of either sex

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A2 · Elementary
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Of lesser importance or stature or rank

Used this way, minor is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It suits considered writing and prepared speech.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Serious and weighty
Usage feel: Formal and precise

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use minor

“A minor share of the profits.”adjective

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

minor roleminor leagueminor childminor keyrelatively minorminor importanceminor detailsminor part

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

minorsnounPlural form
A league of teams that do not belong to a major league (especially baseball).

Word family

Words built from the same root.

minoritynounDerived noun · specialist
A group of people who differ racially or politically from a larger group of which it is a part.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

minor expensenounCompound term
An expense not budgeted or not specified.
minor fast daynounCompound term
One of five minor fast days on the Jewish calendar.
minor keynounCompound term
A key based on the minor scale.
minor leaguenounCompound term
A league of teams that do not belong to a major league (especially baseball).
minor-league clubnounCompound term
A team that plays in a minor league.
minor-league teamnounCompound term
A team that plays in a minor league.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

adjective

Sense: of lesser importance or stature or rank

major

noun

Sense: lesser person or thing or a person

major

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.