Every Argument Has Three Players

In any syllogism, three terms do all the work. The major term is the predicate of the conclusion — what you are saying about something.

Example: "All mammals breathe air. Whales are mammals. Therefore, whales breathe air." Here, breathe air is the major term, whales is the minor term, and mammals is the middle term. The middle term does the heavy lifting: it connects whales to breathing air without ever appearing in the conclusion.