Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

tertiary

/ˈtɝ.ʃiˌɛɹ.i/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.53 in modern English

Syllables
ter-ti-a-ry
IPA
/ˈtɝ.ʃiˌɛɹ.i/
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
4
Syllables
6
Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Of third rank or order; subsequent.

adj

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

noun

Any item considered to be of third order.

noun

A tertiary colour.

noun

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

noun

A tertiary feather; a tertial.

noun

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

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.

Origin

Word Breakdown

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /ˈtɝ.ʃiˌɛɹ.i/
  • British English: /ˈtɜː.ʃi.ə.ɹiː/

Inflected Forms

Derived Forms

Phrases

Frequently Paired Words

Synonyms

Questions

How do you pronounce tertiary?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈtɝ.ʃiˌɛɹ.i/.
What does tertiary mean?
Of third rank or order; subsequent.
Where does tertiary come from?
It is traced to Latin.

How to pronounce tertiary

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  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈtɝ.ʃiˌɛɹ.i/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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