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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Minority \Mi*nor"i*ty\, noun; pl. {Minorities}. [Cf. F. minorit['e]. See {Minor}, adjective & n.]
1. The state of being a minor, or under age.
2. State of being less or small. [Obs.] --Sir T. Browne.
3. The smaller number; -- opposed to {majority}; as, the minority must be ruled by the majority.
4. Those members of a legislature that belong to the political party which is in the minority in that institution; as, the bill will pass even if the minority are strongly opposed. [PJC]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
minority
noun
1: a group of people who differ racially or politically from a larger group of which it is a part
2: being or relating to the smaller in number of two parts; "when the vote was taken they were in the minority"; "he held a minority position" [ant: {majority}]
3: any age prior to the legal age [syn: {nonage}] [ant: {majority}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
50 Moby Thesaurus words for "minority": back seat, callowness, dewiness, disability, disablement, disqualification, freshness, greenness, humbleness, humility, imbecility, immaturity, inability, inadequacy, incapability, incapacitation, incapacity, incompetence, incompetency, inefficiency, ineptitude, inexperience, infancy, inferiority, insufficiency, juiciness, juniority, least, legal incapacity, lowliness, minority group, nonage, rawness, sappiness, second fiddle, second string, secondariness, servility, subjection, subordinacy, subordination, subservience, the few, the minority, third string, undevelopment, unfitness, unripeness, wardship, we happy few
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |