Minor

minor

1. Law below the age of legal majority

2. Music

a. (of a scale) having a semitone between the second and third and fifth and sixth degrees (natural minor)

b. (of a key) based on the minor scale

c. denoting a specified key based on the minor scale

d. (of an interval) reduced by a semitone from the major

e. (of a chord, esp a triad) having a minor third above the root

f. (esp in jazz) of or relating to a chord built upon a minor triad and containing a minor seventh

3. Logic (of a term or premise) having less generality or scope than another term or proposition

4. US education of or relating to an additional secondary subject taken by a student

5. Bell-ringing of, relating to, or denoting a set of changes rung on six bells

6. a person below the age of legal majority

7. US and Canadian education a subsidiary subject in which a college or university student needs fewer credits than in his or her major

8. Music a minor key, chord, mode, or scale

9. Logic a minor term or premise

10. Maths

a. a determinant associated with a particular element of a given determinant and formed by removing the row and column containing that element

b. the number equal to this reduced determinant

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minor [′mīn·ər]

(mathematics)

The minor of an entry of a matrix is the determinant of the matrix obtained by removing the row and column containing the entry. Also known as cofactor; complementary minor.

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Minor 

a determinant consisting of elements at the intersection of arbitrarily selected k rows and k columns of a matrix. Thus, the determinant

is a second-order minor of the matrix

consisting of all of the elements of the matrix at the intersection of the first and fourth rows and second and third columns.

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Minor 

a mode based on the small (minor) triad with its distinctive coloring (mood).

As a triad that does not coincide with the lower tones on the natural scale, and as a mode constructed from this triad, the minor has a dark coloring in sound that is the opposite of the major. The contrast of major and minor is one of the most important aesthetic contrasts in music.