major

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Greater than others in importance or rank: a major artist.
2. adj. Great in scope or effect: a major improvement.
3. adj. Great in number, size, or extent: the major portion of the population.
4. adj. Requiring great attention or concern; very serious: a major illness.
5. adj. Law Having attained full legal age.
6. adj. Of or relating to the field of academic study in which a student specializes.
7. adj. Music Designating a scale or mode having half steps between the third and fourth and the seventh and eighth degrees.
8. adj. Music Equivalent to the distance between the tonic note and the second or third or sixth or seventh degrees of a major scale or mode: a major interval.
9. adj. Music Based on a major scale: a major key.
10. n. A commissioned rank in the U.S. Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps that is above captain and below lieutenant colonel.
11. n. One who holds this rank.
12. n. One that is superior in rank, importance, or ability: an oil-producing country considered as one of the majors.
13. n. Law One who has reached full legal age.
14. n. A field of study chosen as an academic specialty.
15. n. A student specializing in such studies: a linguistics major.
16. n. Logic A major premise.
17. n. Logic A major term.
18. n. Music A major scale, key, interval, or mode.
19. n. Music A chord containing a major third between the first and second notes and a minor third between the second and third notes.
20. n. Sports The major leagues.
21. v. To pursue academic studies in a major: majoring in mathematics.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Greater; more important or effective; first in force or consideration; leading; principal: as, the major premise or term of a syllogism.
2. Greater in quantity, number, or extent: as, the major part of the revenue, of an assembly, or of a territory.
3. Of age; having attained to majority.
4. In music
5. Of intervals, standard or normal; literally “greater,” as compared with minor intervals. The term is more often applied to seconds, thirds, sixths, sevenths, and ninths, designating an interval equivalent to the intervals between the key-note of a standard or normal scale and its second, third, sixth, seventh, and ninth tone respectively. Thus, a major second is two semitones long, a major third four semitones, a major sixth nine semitones, and a major seventh eleven semitones. Major has also been applied of late to fourths, fifths, and octaves, and is then equivalent to the older term perfect. Finally, it is used to distinguish the larger of two intervals that differ by a minute quantity: as, a major step or tone (), which is a comma greater than a minor tone. Opposed to minor, and also often to diminished and augmented. See interval, 5.
6. Of tones, distant by a major interval from a given tone: as, A is the major third of F, etc.
7. Of tonalities and scales, standard or normal: characterized by a major third and also by a major sixth and seventh: opposed to minor. The major tonality or scale is the recognized standard of reference for all the modern musical systems. See key, tonality, and scale.
8. Of triads and chords, characterized by a major third between the root and the tone next above, and a perfect fifth between the root and the second tone above: opposed to minor, diminished, and augmented. The major triad is the usual standard of reference in classifying the chords of modern music. See triad and chord.
9. Of cadences, ending in a major triad.
10. Of modes in the modern sense, and thus of composition in general, characterized by the use of a major tonality and of major cadences: as, a piece is written throughout in the major mode. From an acoustical point of view, major intervals, chords, and scales are simpler and stronger in themselves and admit of better harmonic extension and combination than minor. The educated taste of modern times has tended to exalt the major over the minor, making the former the standard and normal of which the latter is the variation; while the medieval systems, being based upon a different conception of music at various points, tended the other way. The esthetic effect of the major in contrast with the minor is brighter, stronger, and more complete. It has recently been maintained that major and minor phenomena, in all their phases, are mutually reciprocal, the major triad, scale, etc., being measured upward in a certain way from a given tone, and the minor triad, scale, etc., being measured downward in the same way from the same tone. According to this view, the major triad of C is called the over-chord of C, and the minor triad of F is called the under-chord of C, etc.
11. In logic, wider; broader; more extensive; a predicate to more subjects. The major extreme or major term of a syllogism is that term which enters into the predicate of the conclusion; the major premise is that premise which contains the major term. These have always been the usual definitions, but they have been subject to much dispute, owing to the fact that all real distinction between major and minor vanishes in certain cases.
12. n. Milit., an officer next in rank above a captain and below a lieutenant-colonel; the lowest field-officer. His chief duties consist in superintending the exercises of his regiment or battalion, and in putting in execution the commands of his superior officer. His ordinary position in the line is behind the left wing. Abbreviated Maj.
13. n. In law, a person who is old enough to manage his own concerns. See age, n., 3.
14. n. In music, the major mode, or a major tonality or major chord, taken absolutely.
15. n. In logic
16. n. The major premise of a syllogism, which in direct syllogisms states the rule from which the conclusion is drawn.
17. n. The major extreme of a syllogism.
18. n. Same as mayor.
19. To act the major; look and talk big, or with a military air.
20. In prosody, noting the longer of two types of verse which bear a common name.

Wiktionary

1. n. a military rank between captain and lieutenant colonel
2. adj. Of great significance or importance.
3. adj. music Being the larger of two intervals denoted by the same ordinal number.
4. adj. music Containing the note which is a major third (four half steps) above the tonic.
5. n. The main area of study of a student working toward a degree at a college or university.
6. n. A student at a college or university concentrating on a given area of study.
7. n. A person of legal age.
8. n. logic The major premise.
9. n. Canadian football An alternate term for touchdown; short for "major score".
10. v. to concentrate on a particular area of study as a student in a college or university

GNU Webster's 1913

1. Greater in number, quantity, or extent
2. Of greater dignity; more important.
3. obsolete Of full legal age; adult.
4. (Mus.) Greater by a semitone, either in interval or in difference of pitch from another tone.
5. n. (Mil.) An officer next in rank above a captain and next below a lieutenant colonel; the lowest field officer.
6. n. (Law) A person of full age.
7. n. (Logic) That premise which contains the major term. It its the first proposition of a regular syllogism; as: No unholy person is qualified for happiness in heaven [the major]. Every man in his natural state is unholy [minor]. Therefore, no man in his natural state is qualified for happiness in heaven [conclusion or inference].
8. n. obsolete A mayor.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. British statesman who was prime minister from 1990 until 1997 (born in 1943)
2. adj. of greater importance or stature or rank
3. n. a commissioned military officer in the United States Army or Air Force or Marines; below lieutenant colonel and above captain
4. adj. greater in scope or effect
5. v. have as one's principal field of study
6. adj. greater in number or size or amount
7. adj. of a scale or mode
8. adj. of greater seriousness or danger
9. adj. of the elder of two boys with the same family name
10. adj. of full legal age
11. adj. of the field of academic study in which one concentrates or specializes
12. n. the principal field of study of a student at a university
13. n. a university student who is studying a particular field as the principal subject