Tertiary

Quick meaning: Tertiary is an adjective meaning Of third rank or order; subsequent.

Meaning

Of third rank or order; subsequent.

More Meanings

1. (chemistry) Possessing some quality in the third degree; especially having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or radicals.
2. (ornithology) Of quills: growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial.
3. Any item considered to be of third order.
4. A tertiary colour.
5. (geology) Something from the Tertiary Period (the former term for the geologic period from 65 million to 2.58 million years ago).
6. (ornithology) A tertiary feather; a tertial.
7. (military) 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.

Example Sentences

a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt

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.

If artistic and industrial education, if Mechanics Institutions, Colleges, and all the establishments of secondary and tertiary education, are to be taken under Government management, the objections stated above would be greatly aggravated and multiplied.

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.

Word Forms

• tertiaries

Synonyms for tertiary

Depending on context, synonyms include ternary, tertial, ordinal, third.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include third, ordinal, secondary, advanced, best, service.

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