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say it: MAY-jur
major is an adjective, noun and verb meaning "of greater importance or stature or rank". It is pronounced /ˈmeɪdʒɚ/ — MAY-jur. It carries 13 recorded senses.
greater in scope or effect
“a major contribution”
“a major improvement”
“a major break with tradition”
“a major misunderstanding”
greater in number or size or amount
“a major portion (a majority) of the population”
“Ursa Major”
“a major portion of the winnings”
of the field of academic study in which one concentrates or specializes
“his major field was mathematics”
(of a scale or mode) having half steps between the third and fourth degrees and the seventh and eighth degrees
“major scales”
“the key of D major”
music
of greater seriousness or danger
“a major earthquake”
“a major hurricane”
“a major illness”
a commissioned military officer in the United States Army or Air Force or Marines; below lieutenant colonel and above captain
military
British statesman who was prime minister from 1990 until 1997 (born in 1943)
a university student who is studying a particular field as the principal subject
“she is a linguistics major”
the principal field of study of a student at a university
“her major is linguistics”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for major come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.