minorities

Noun

minority (countable and uncountable, plural minorities)

1. The state or condition of being smaller, inferior, or subordinate to something or someone else; lesserness.
2. The state of being a minor; youth, the period of a person's life prior to reaching adulthood.
   • And lest any man should think her intent was to unnestle ill neighbours, and not to aid good neighbours, or that she was readier to restore what was invaded by others than to render what was in her own hands; see if the time provided not a new occasion afterwards, when through their own division...a. 1603, Francis Bacon, Discourse in the Praise of Queen Elizabeth

   Synonyms:

   childhood

   Antonyms:

   adulthood

3. Any subgroup that does not form a numerical majority.
   • Most people agreed, but a sizable minority were upset by the decision.

   Antonyms:

   majority

4. (US) A member of an ethnic minority.
   • The company claims it has hired several minorities since the complaint was lodged.
5. A group of people seen as distinct who are subordinated and discriminated against in a society.
   • But we have seen that one important difference between women and other minorities is that women's attitudes and self-conceptions are conditioned more largely by interaction with both minority and dominant group members1951 October, Helen Mayer Hacker, “Women as Minority Group”, in Howard W. Odum, Katherine Jocher, editors, Social Forces, volume 30, number 1, Williams & Wilkins, →DOI, page 63
6. (India, euphemistic) A Muslim.

See all 8 meanings of minority