tertiary

CEFRB2

/ˈtɜː.ʃi.ə.ɹiː/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Third in order, level, or importance.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Of quills: growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial.

Examples

  • More than 80% of Guyanese nationals with tertiary level educations have emigrated.

  • Tertiary prevention focuses on preventing the burden of disease.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Also pronounced

  • /ˈtɜː.ʃə.ɹiː/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Possessing some quality in the third degree; especially having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or radicals.

  2. Of third rank or order; subsequent.

noun

Extra meaning

  1. Any item considered to be of third order.

More examples

In context

  • a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt

  • 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 li...

  • An untaught peasant beheld the elements around him and was acquainted with their practical uses. The most learned philosopher knew little more. He had partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder and a mystery. He mig...

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

In the education system, primary, secondary, and blank schools are the main levels.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

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.