1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Majority

MAJORITY (Fr. majorité; Med. Lat. majoritas; Lat. major, greater), a term signifying the greater number. In legislative and deliberative assemblies it is usual to decide questions by a majority of those present at a meeting and voting. In law, majority is the state of being of full age, which in the United Kingdom is twenty-one years of age. A person attains his majority at twelve o’clock at night of the day preceding his twenty-first birthday (see Infant; Age).