What does "tertiary" mean?
Any item considered to be of third order.
Tertiary
/ˈtɜː.ʃi.ə.ɹiː/ adj, name, noun
adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Any item considered to be of third order.
- Grammar: tertiary is listed as adj, name, noun.
- Nearest alternatives: third, 3rd, chromatic circle, chromatic spectrum.
- Useful contrasts: Quaternary, denatured form, first.
- Usage evidence: More than 80% of Guyanese nationals with tertiary level educations have emigrated.
How to use "tertiary"
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- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "tertiary" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
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- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "tertiary" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "tertiary" is acting as adj, name, noun in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
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3. Confirm with context
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Final meaning check
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When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any item considered to be of third order.
"The primary rhizomes usually die during the growing season. The tertiaries and secondaries, however, live through the winter and become primary rhizomes the following year."
- 2 A tertiary colour.
"My principal objection is against the compound or derivative tints, given under the denominations of secondaries and tertiaries."
- 3 Something from the Tertiary Period (the former term for the geologic period from 65 million to 2.58 million years ago).
"There is, within our area, a great gap between the Eocene group and the later tertiaries, indicated by the difference of their organic contents. Between the existing fauna of our seas and the oldest stage of the later tertiaries, there is a distinct and extensive relationship of identity of species."
- 4 A tertiary feather; a tertial.
"The feathers [of the least sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)], black centrally, are margined with bright rufous, especially on the back, scapulars, and tertiaries, and with white tips on the latter; the stripes on the middle of the throat and chest are indistinct or almost absent, more evident on sides of breast."
- 5 A large stage in some extremely powerful thermonuclear weapons (resembling a greatly-enlarged secondary) which is compressed by the explosion of the secondary until ignition of nuclear fusion takes place, in much the same manner as the secondary is imploded by the primary, and which can allow for the attainment of yields of many tens or even hundreds of megatons, and likely even greater; not used in modern weapons due to a greater focus on the accurate use of sub-megaton weapons, the tremendous size of weapons incorporating a tertiary, and the lack of targets whose destruction would necessitate the use of a three-stage weapon.
"A gigaton-scale weapon would of necessity be a three-stage design (incorporating a fusion tertiary - likely with its own massive fission tamper - in addition to the fission primary and fission-jacketed fusion secondary), as a reasonably-sized primary would likely have difficulty imploding to ignition the enormous secondary that would be required to reach a one-gigaton yield with a two-stage thermonuclear."
Show 1 more definition
- 6 A member of a Roman Catholic third order; a layperson who participates in activities similar to those engaged in by men and women who take religious vows (respectively the first and second orders), and who may wear some elements of an order's habit such as a scapular.
"Tertiaries living in places where there is no Church of the Order or of the Third Order can gain all the indulgences they would gain visiting such a church, by visiting their respective parish church, or, where there is no parochial church, by visiting another church or public oratory, and fulfilling the other conditions."
Adjective
- 1 Of third rank or order; subsequent. not-comparable
"Beſides theſe primordial mountains, M. [P[eter] S[imon]] Pallas maintains, that there are others of a more recent origin. These he calls ſecondary and tertiary: […] the latter ariſe from the wrecks and contents of the ſea, raiſed and tranſported by volcanic eruptions and conſequent inundations."
- 2 Of or pertaining to the first part of the Cenozoic era when modern flora and mammals appeared. not-comparable
- 3 Possessing some quality in the third degree; especially having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or radicals. not-comparable
"a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt"
- 4 Of quills: growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial. not-comparable
"The primary, secondary, and tertiary wing feathers (remiges) of adult mourning doves are shed and replaced yearly in an orderly sequence, so flight is possible during molt. […] Little is known about the shedding sequence of the secondary or tertiary feathers or the related coverts. If it is similar to that of passerines, however, loss of the outermost tertiary feather occurs coincident with loss of the fifth or sixth primary[…]. The molt then would continue sequentially until the last or innermost tertiary was shed and replaced."
Adjective
- 1 coming next after the second and just before the fourth in position wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 The first part of the Cenozoic era when modern flora and mammals appeared.
"[…] a continental northern Alaskan element, including a series of endemic species and disjuncts that have survived the Pleistocene glaciation in northern Alaska and thus represent relicts of the much warmer Tertiary […]"
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
Example
"More than 80% of Guyanese nationals with tertiary level educations have emigrated."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "tertiary"?
Common synonyms include: third, 3rd, chromatic circle, chromatic spectrum, chromaticity diagram, color circle.
How do you use "tertiary" in a sentence?
More than 80% of Guyanese nationals with tertiary level educations have emigrated.
How do you pronounce "tertiary"?
Pronounced /ˈtɜː.ʃi.ə.ɹiː/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
PIE word *tréyes Borrowed from the Latin tertiārius (“of the third part or rank”), from tertius (“third”) (from Proto-Indo-European *tr̥tyós, whence English third) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French tertiaire. By surface analysis, terti- + -ary.
Etymology 2
See tertiary.