nounplural noun minorities

• 1The smaller number or part, especially a number or part representing less than half of the whole.

  ‘only a minority of properties are rented’

  More example sentences

  • ‘those who acknowledge his influence are in the minority’
  • ‘a minority party’
  • ‘The group is regarded as a fundamentalist organisation representing the views of the minority of Muslims.’
  • ‘And for the minority of people who can't, having restricted licensing hours is highly unlikely to deter them.’
  • ‘The A-level of old had a specific function: to test the minority of young people who would go on to higher education.’
  • ‘The minority of settlers that chose to defy the ultimatums knew that the government meant business.’
  • ‘How do we detect the minority of patients who really would be frightened?’
  • ‘These laws are aimed at the minority of annoying customers and not at the lovely ones.’
  • ‘Operative repair is necessary for the minority of cases that don't respond to splinting.’
  • ‘Throughout this period, there had always been a minority of rebels who challenged the rule of the clock.’
  • ‘There would appear to be a whole range of compatibility issues with small programs that a minority of users have on their computer.’
  • ‘He claimed those allegedly involved represented a very small minority of the district's Asian community.’
  • ‘Focusing on a minority of more profitable brands that are believed to have the greatest growth potential will actually help retailers.’
  • ‘It is an option only suited to a minority of tourists - independent travellers, prepared to rough it and able to speak Spanish.’
  • ‘It is only in a minority of cases that the problem is stress-related.’
  • ‘Nevertheless, even though it may only be a small minority of young people who are going off the rails, the report reveals much that is worrying.’
  • ‘So it looks as if, for the foreseeable future, unfurnished properties will comprise a tiny minority of the private rented market.’
  • ‘Perhaps because it got it from the founder of the state of Bulgaria, it is one of a minority of Sofia streets never to have been renamed.’
  • ‘Today, only a minority of islands bother with cutting peats.’
  • ‘There is overwhelming evidence that the Holocaust was real, yet a minority of ideologically driven historians still deny it.’
  • ‘Only a minority of organizing campaigns use such tactics effectively, she says.’

  1. 1.1The number of votes cast for or by the smaller party in a legislative assembly.
     ‘a blocking minority of 23 votes’
     More example sentences

     • ‘This means that a minority of just 26 votes can block a decision.’
     • ‘The balance of voting in the Council of Ministers had, up to this point, meant that a 'blocking minority' of 23 votes was required.’
  2. 1.2A small group of people within a community or country, differing from the main population in race, religion, language, or political persuasion.
     ‘ethnic minorities’
     More example sentences

     • ‘minority rights’
     • ‘It seems extraordinary that as liberals we now feel secure enough to impose our own orthodoxies on the dissenting minorities within our community.’
     • ‘There are no real race or religion minorities, much less any clashes.’
     • ‘There were no Tamil or Muslim candidates representing the country's main ethnic and religious minorities.’
     • ‘Many Roma communities have been settled for centuries as established minorities within countries that still don't accept them.’
     • ‘There are two main religious minorities which apply for asylum in the United Kingdom.’
     • ‘The minority community generally feel that the scales of justice are tilted widely against them.’
     • ‘Most nations practice discrimination against foreigners and disfavor minorities within their countries.’
     • ‘Equally important, we have to go address the growing minority populations in this country.’
     • ‘The main Canadian minorities have better social conditions and benefit from a different pattern of government transfers to the poor.’
     • ‘This allowed minorities and ethnic communities to flourish here.’
     • ‘No wonder we never hear of any member of the minority community ever holding any position of importance in these countries.’
     • ‘The day Hinduism becomes a minority religion in India, it will be no different from Pakistan.’
     • ‘By the year 2010, 50 per cent of people living in London are going to be from the minority communities.’
     • ‘Which brings us back to the Sikhs, who before this incident in Birmingham were the model of a law-abiding minority community.’
     • ‘Under what criteria is it acceptable for a political minority to take by force what it cannot win at the ballot box?’
     • ‘Can there be true secularism and democracy in Kashmir without giving the Pandit minority a political space?’
     • ‘It wasn't even welfare reform, because that was popular with minorities.’
     • ‘In the main, not all minorities are beleaguered and not all non-minorities are privileged.’
     • ‘His hatred for minorities and communists comes out transparently.’
     • ‘More than a third of the world's Muslim population live as minorities.’
• 2mass noun The state or period of being under the age of full legal responsibility.

  ‘intrigues between factions striving to make the king their puppet continued throughout his minority’

  More example sentences

  • ‘During the claimant's minority the initial limitation period would not run.’
  • ‘Claims by children are not limited to those made during their minority; an adult child may seek an order.’
  • ‘The context was exceptional, for royal authority was weakened by the minority of Louis XIV.’

  Synonyms

  youth, early years, early days, early life, infancy, babyhood, boyhood, girlhood, pre-teens, preadolescence, prepubescence, adolescence, teens, teenage years, young adulthood, immaturity