tertiary
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: Catholicism
Christianity
Roman-Catholicism
biology
chemistry
geography
geology
government
military
natural-sciences
ornithology
physical-sciences
politics
war
Etymology: 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.
Inflected forms:
form: tertiaries
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Of third rank or order; subsequent.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: 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.
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 might dissect, anatomize, and give names; but, not to speak of a final cause, causes in their secondary and tertiary grades were utterly unknown to him.
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.
gloss: Possessing some quality in the third degree; especially having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or radicals.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt
If, on the other hand, we remember that a tertiary monoamine, such as must be formed by the final methylation of the ammonia fragment in aniline when submitted to the action of an alcohol chloride, is invariably converted into an ammonium compound it must appear rather strange that in the process above alluded to only tertiary, and never any quartery bases are observed.
gloss: Of quills: growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: 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.
gloss: Any item considered to be of third order.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
The options available for distribution of water during times of reduced supply or demand are the following: […] (b) To reduce the rate of flow in the primary canal (still maintaining continuous flow in it) and to supply full flow in rotation to secondaries and their tertiaries; (c) to reduce the rate of flow in both primary and secondary canals, and to supply full flow in rotation to tertiaries; […]
There is no evidence that irrigators fail to keep their supply canals (tertiaries, watercourses, ditches) open when they need water.
gloss: A tertiary colour.
pos: noun
examples: My principal objection is against the compound or derivative tints, given under the denominations of secondaries and tertiaries.
[Rudolf] Arnheim suggested that the capacity of activating tensions is to be found in the tertiary hues, which are unbalanced mixtures of primaries that are present in different quantities. This peculiar relationship between tertiaries must be distinguished from the interaction of complementary colors that occurs when primaries and secondaries are coupled.
gloss: Something from the Tertiary Period (the former term for the geologic period from 65 million to 2.58 million years ago).
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: A tertiary feather; a tertial.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: 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.
Immediately after her arrival in Ferrara, while she was still striving to secure the foundation of her exemplary reformed community of Dominican tertiaries, [Lucia] Brocadelli also renewed her attempts to enhance [Girolamo] Savonarola's saintly reputation.
Synonyms: ternary
tertial
Related words: tertian
cubic
Derived words: methyl tertiary butyl ether
nontertiary
pretertiary
tertamyl
tertiarily
tertiariness
tertiarization
tertiary alcohol
tertiary amine
tertiary amyl
tertiary butyl
tertiary butylhydroquinone
tertiary care
tertiary college
tertiary color
tertiary colour
tertiary education
tertiary explosive
tertiary healthcare
tertiary industry
tertiary-level education
tertiary phosphine
tertiary planet
tertiary sector
tertiary source
tertiary structure
tertiary student
tertiary work
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