\Mi"nor\, a. [L., a comparative with no positive; akin to
AS. min small, G. minder less, OHG. minniro, a., min, adv.,
Icel. minni, a., minnr, adv., Goth. minniza, a., mins, adv.,
Ir. & Gael. min small, tender, L. minuere to lessen, Gr. ?,
Skr. mi to damage. Cf. {Minish}, {Minister}, {Minus},
{Minute}.]
1. Inferior in bulk, degree, importance, etc.; less; smaller;
   of little account; as, minor divisions of a body.
2. (Mus.) Less by a semitone in interval or difference of
   pitch; as, a minor third.
{Asia Minor} (Geog.), the Lesser Asia; that part of Asia
   which lies between the Euxine, or Black Sea, on the north,
   and the Mediterranean on the south.
{Minor mode} (Mus.), that mode, or scale, in which the third
   and sixth are minor, -- much used for mournful and solemn
   subjects.
{Minor orders} (Eccl.), the rank of persons employed in
   ecclesiastical offices who are not in holy orders, as
   doorkeepers, acolytes, etc.
{Minor scale} (Mus.) The form of the minor scale is various.
   The strictly correct form has the third and sixth minor,
   with a semitone between the seventh and eighth, which
   involves an augmented second interval, or three semitones,
   between the sixth and seventh, as, ^{6/F}, ^{7/G[sharp]},
   ^{8/A}. But, for melodic purposes, both the sixth and the
   seventh are sometimes made major in the ascending, and
   minor in the descending, scale, thus:

\Mi"nor\, n.
1. A person of either sex who has not attained the age at
   which full civil rights are accorded; an infant; in
   England and the United States, one under twenty-one years
   of age.
Note: In hereditary monarchies, the minority of a sovereign
      ends at an earlier age than of a subject. The minority
      of a sovereign of Great Britain ends upon the
      completion of the eighteenth year of his age.
2. (Logic) The minor term, that is, the subject of the
   conclusion; also, the minor premise, that is, that premise
   which contains the minor term; in hypothetical syllogisms,
   the categorical premise. It is the second proposition of a
   regular syllogism, as in the following: Every act of
   injustice partakes of meanness; to take money from another
   by gaming is an act of injustice; therefore, the taking of
   money from another by gaming partakes of meanness.
3. A Minorite; a Franciscan friar.