Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The smaller in number of two groups forming a whole.
- noun A group or party having fewer than a controlling number of votes.
- noun A racial, religious, political, national, or other group thought to be different from the larger group of which it is part.
- noun A group having little power or representation relative to other groups within a society.
- noun A member of one of these groups.
- noun Law The state or period of being younger than the age for legal adulthood.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state of being minor or smaller.
- noun The minor part in number; the smaller of two aggregates into which a whole is divided numerically; a number less than half: opposed to majority.
- noun Specifically The smaller of two related aggregates of persons; the minor division of any whole number of persons: as, the rights of the minority; government by minorities.
- noun The state of being a minor or not come of age, and therefore legally incapacitated for the performance of certain acts; the period or interval before one is of full age, generally the period from birth until twenty-one years of age (see
age , 3); in Scots law, the interval between pupilarity and majority. Seeminor , n., 1.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The state of being a minor, or under age.
- noun obsolete State of being less or small.
- noun The smaller number; -- opposed to
majority . - noun Those members of a legislature that belong to the political party which is in the minority in that institution.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun politics, government, etc.
Empowered by orrepresenting a minority (usually aplurality ) ofvotes cast,legislative seats , etc., rather than an outrightmajority thereof.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any age prior to the legal age
- noun being or relating to the smaller in number of two parts
- noun a group of people who differ racially or politically from a larger group of which it is a part
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The powerful Socialist and revolutionary minority created in industrial communities by equal suffrage and a democratic form of government, _as long as it remains distinctly a minority_, is unable to injure the combined forces of capitalism, while it furnishes a useful and invaluable club by which the progressive capitalists can threaten and overwhelm the reactionaries.
Socialism As It Is A Survey of The World-Wide Revolutionary Movement William English Walling
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The term minority itself is far more likely to be applied to blacks and Asians than to Jews, even though in a worldwide sense Jews fit the definition far better, and even within the United States are far fewer in number than blacks.
Color is in the eye of the beholder Kylopod 2008
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The term minority itself is far more likely to be applied to blacks and Asians than to Jews, even though in a worldwide sense Jews fit the definition far better, and even within the United States are far fewer in number than blacks.
Archive 2008-04-01 Kylopod 2008
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So recently in the comments section of my blog, one of my readers said , “can we stop using the term minority now. it is obvious that whites are the minority.”
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March 26th, 2006 at 12:04 am blog, one of my readers said, “can we stop using the term minority now. it is obvious that whites are the minority.”
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In sociology (and several other academic disciplines.) the term minority group(s), refers to any group that has less access to power; in other words any group that is underrepresented in the power structure of a country or culture.
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I am by no means here to defend the term minority, minorities, or majorities.
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I was a little sympathetic to the argument, but my definition of the term minority was much broader than the way my student was using it, and I used it in a much broader way then the term is used by the typical American.
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The San Diego City Council last month voted to strike the word minority from official use.
The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004
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The San Diego City Council last month voted to strike the word minority from official use.
The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004
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