secondary

English Online Dictionary. What means secondary‎? What does secondary mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English secundarie, from Latin secundārius (“of the second class or quality”), from secundus (whence the English second) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary), equivalent to second +‎ -ary; compare the French secondaire, the Italian secondario, the Occitan secundari, the Portuguese secundario, and the Spanish secundario.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛkənd(ə)ɹɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɛkənˌdɛɹi/

Adjective

secondary (not generally comparable, comparative more secondary, superlative most secondary)

1. Next in order to the first or primary; of second place in origin, rank, etc.
2. Originating from a deputy or delegated person or body.

3. (organic chemistry) Derived from a parent compound by replacement of two atoms of hydrogen by organic radicals.
4. (geology) Produced by alteration or deposition subsequent to the formation of the original rock mass.
5. (geology) Developed by pressure or other causes.

6. (anatomy) Pertaining to the second joint of the wing of a bird.
7. (medicine) Dependent or consequent upon another disease, or occurring in the second stage of a disease.

   Antonym: idiopathic

8. Of less than primary importance.
9. (education) Related to secondary education, i.e. schooling between the ages of (approximately) 11 and 18.
10. (manufacturing) Relating to the manufacture of goods from raw materials.
11. (of a color) Formed by mixing primary colors.

12. (taxonomy, not comparable) Representing a reversion to an ancestral state.

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

secondary (plural secondaries)

1. (ornithology) Any flight feather attached to the ulna (forearm) of a bird.
2. (aviation) A radar return generated by the response of an aircraft's transponder to an interrogation signal broadcast by a radar installation, containing additional encoded identification and situational data not available from a simple primary return.
3. (military) The second stage of a multistage thermonuclear weapon, which generates a fusion explosion when imploded as an indirect result of the fission explosion of the primary, and which, in a few extremely large weapons, itself implodes a fusion tertiary.
4. (finance) An act of issuing more stock by an already publicly traded corporation.
5. (American football, Canadian football) The defensive backs.
6. (electronics) An inductive coil or loop that is magnetically powered by a primary in a transformer or similar.
7. One who occupies a subordinate or auxiliary place; a delegate deputy.
8. (astronomy) A secondary circle.
9. (astronomy) A satellite.
10. (education) A secondary school.

11. Short for secondary colour.
12. Anything secondary or of lesser importance.

Translations

Middle English

Adjective

secondary

1. Alternative form of secundarie

Noun

secondary

1. Alternative form of secundarie