mi·nor a.
 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♯, 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: --
 
 See Major.
 Minor term of a syllogism Logic, the subject of the conclusion.

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 Asia Minor
      n : a peninsula in southwestern Asia that forms the Asian part
          of Turkey [syn: Anatolia]