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Tertiary

ter·tiary

UK/ˈtɜː.ʃi.ə.ɹiː/ US/ˈtɜː.ʃə.ɹiː/ uncommon
noun (1) adjective (1)

noun

1.

from 63 million to 2 million years ago

Synonyms

adjective

1.

coming next after the second and just before the fourth in position

Synonyms
Similar

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • methyl tertiary butyl ether
  • tertiary alcohol
  • tertiary amine
  • tertiary amyl
  • tertiary butyl
  • tertiary butylhydroquinone
  • tertiary care
  • tertiary college

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Parts

Part of

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.