minor scale

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Music A diatonic scale having a half step between the second and third degrees and any of several intervalic arrangements above the fifth.

Wiktionary

1. n. music A diatonic scale based upon a relative major scale by changing its tonic note by three semitones.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. (Mus.) The form of 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: -- [1913 Webster] . [1913 Webster] See Major.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a diatonic scale with notes separated by whole tones except for the 2nd and 3rd and 5th and 6th