For doped semiconductors, in particular in the p-n junction case, ``majority charge carriers'' are the relatively mobile electrons and holes associated with the dopants. These provide most of the conductivity of the doped semiconductor. The ``minority charge carriers'' are the less-mobile electrons and holes associated with the pure semiconductor: once in a while, due to thermal fluctuations, an electron can leave its valence band and inhabit a state in the conduction band. There are typically many fewer of these in a doped semiconductor, so minority current flow tends to be small.