Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - minor

(minors, minoring, minored) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. 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. ? major ADJ 2. 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... His mother had to go to the hospital for minor surgery. ? major ADJ: usu ADJ n 3. 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. ? major ADJ: n ADJ, ADJ n 4. 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. N-COUNT 5. 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. ? major N-COUNT: oft poss N 6. 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. ? major N-COUNT: n N 7. 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. I’m minoring in computer science. ? major VERB: V in n