tertiary

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Of third rank or order

   Of third rank or order; subsequent.

2. 2

   Possessing some quality in the third degree

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

   • a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt
3. 3

   Of quills

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

4. ›+ 8 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      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.
      • There is no evidence that irrigators fail to keep their supply canals (tertiaries, watercourses, ditches) open when they need water.
   2. 5

      A tertiary colour.

      • My principal objection is against the compound or derivative tints, given under the denominations of secondaries and tertiaries.
   3. 6

      Something from the Tertiary Period (the former term for the geologic period from 65…

      Something from the Tertiary Period (the former term for the geologic period from 65 million to 2.58 million years ago).

   4. 7

      A tertiary feather

      A tertiary feather; a tertial.

      • Coincident with the dropping out of the fifth or sixth primary is the molt of the outermost tertiary, followed by the adjoining tertiary, and then the third tertiary, which in most passerine birds is the last or innermost.
   5. 8

      A large stage in some extremely powerful thermonuclear weapons (resembling a…

      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.

   6. 9

      A member of a Roman Catholic third order

      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.

   7. 10

      Of or pertaining to the first part of the Cenozoic era when modern flora and mammals…

      Of or pertaining to the first part of the Cenozoic era when modern flora and mammals appeared.

   8. 11

      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 […]

The neighborhood

• synonymternary
• synonymtertial
• neighbortertian
• neighborcubic