major
part of speech
adjective (major); noun (a major, majors); verb (major, majors, majored, majoring — US)
meaning for a pupil
1) Very important, big or serious (a major problem, a major road). tree →
2) An army officer of middle rank. tree →
3) (music) A major key or scale sounds bright and happy (C major). tree →
4) (US, Canada) The main subject a student studies at university, or to study it as the main subject (she majored in maths). tree →
5) (informal) Very great (a major fan). tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life and news: a major road, major injury, major storm. In music lessons: major and minor keys. In history: Major is an army rank. Phrases: major league (US: top level of a sport), a major part of, major in.
examples
- There was a major accident on the motorway. tree →
- Reading is a major part of our school day. tree →
- This song is in C major. tree →
- Major Smith led the soldiers. tree →
- My cousin is majoring in biology at college (US). tree →
- Stay away from major roads when you ride your bike. tree →
- I'm a major fan of that band (informal). tree →
note
Opposite: minor (small, less important). Noun: majority (the bigger part). As an army rank, write with a capital M before a name: Major Brown. "Major" is not compared normally ("more major" is informal).
In the corpora
- Falls are a major cause of serious injury in older people, and a broken hip can take months to heal.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «major» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.