minor term

9.6

The word that the conclusion is about in a syllogism

noun

Specialized

: término menor

In the syllogism, the minor term is the subject of the conclusion statement.

Examples

The minor term must always appear in the minor premise of a syllogism.
In this argument, the minor term is 'cats'.
Logic students learned to identify the minor term in each of the exercises.
The minor term is essential in a syllogism.
In the syllogism, the minor term is the subject of the conclusion statement.
Logic students learned to identify the minor term in each of the exercises.
The minor term must always appear in the minor premise of a syllogism.

Surface Forms

minor term singular

minor terms plural

Morphology

minor + term

Although the constituents 'minor' (less important) and 'term' (a word/label) are individually known, the MWE's technical meaning in logic ('the term that is the subject of the conclusion') is domain-specific and not a predictable compositional sense. A B1 learner would likely interpret 'minor term' as 'a less important word' rather than the specific role in a syllogism, so the meaning is not derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Minor term comes from the words minor meaning 'smaller' and term meaning a 'word' in an argument. In a short logical argument called a 'syllogism', the minor term is the smaller, more specific word that appears as the 'subject' of the 'conclusion', so the name shows its role.