# secondary

Pronunciation: US say "SEK-uhn-dair-ee" /ˈsɛkənˌdɛɹi/; UK say "SEK-uhn-dree" /ˈsɛkənd(ə)ɹɪ/

## Adjective

1. Coming next after the first or primary; of second place in order, origin, or rank.
   - Simple: Coming after the first or main one in order or rank.
   - _We took the secondary route to avoid traffic on the main road._
   - _In the company hierarchy, his secondary role supported the lead manager._
2. Having less than primary importance; minor or subordinate compared with what matters most.
   - Simple: Less important than the main or first thing.
   - _Profit remained a secondary consideration behind the company's mission._
   - _For now, decorating the office is a secondary priority._
3. Relating to education for students between roughly 11 and 18 years of age.
   - Simple: About schooling for students roughly between ages 11 and 18.
   - _Many secondary students choose elective subjects in their final years._
   - _He teaches science at a large secondary school._
5. Of a color, formed by mixing two primary colors.
   - Simple: Made by mixing two main colors together, like green from blue and yellow.
   - _Painters mix red and yellow to make a secondary orange._
   - _The chart grouped every secondary color beside its parent primaries._
8. Concerned with turning raw materials into finished products.
   - Simple: About making finished goods from raw materials, like in factories.
   - _The country's secondary industries expanded as factories multiplied._
   - _Workers shifted from farming into secondary manufacturing jobs._
9. Of a condition, arising as a consequence of another disease, or occurring in its second stage.
   - Simple: Caused by another illness, or happening in the second stage of a disease.
   - _Patients with diabetes may develop secondary complications affecting the eyes._
   - _The rash signaled the secondary stage of the infection._
10. Derived from someone acting as a deputy, or from a person or body to whom authority has been delegated.
   - Simple: Coming from a deputy or someone given the power to act for another.
   - _The committee held secondary authority delegated by the full council._
   - _The regulations carry only secondary force, derived from the minister's delegated powers._
15. Representing a reversion to a condition possessed by an evolutionary ancestor.
   - Simple: Showing a return to a feature that an ancestor once had.
   - _Researchers interpreted the simplified shell as a secondary feature rather than a primitive one._
   - _The cave fish's blindness is secondary, evolved long after its sighted ancestors._
16. Formed by alteration or by deposition occurring after the original rock mass took shape.
   - Simple: Formed later, when changes or new material build up after the original rock was made.
   - _The vein contained secondary quartz precipitated from circulating groundwater._
   - _Weathering produced a secondary mineral coating along the fracture surfaces._
17. Developed through pressure or other causes acting on the rock after its original formation.
   - Simple: Formed later because of pressure or other forces acting on the rock.
   - _Tectonic stress imposed a secondary cleavage on the mudstone._
   - _The deformation produced secondary structures unrelated to the original bedding._
18. Derived from a parent compound by the replacement of two hydrogen atoms with organic radicals.
   - Simple: In chemistry, made by swapping two hydrogen atoms in a basic compound for groups of other atoms.
   - _Oxidation of a secondary alcohol typically yields a ketone._
   - _The amine in this drug is secondary, bearing two carbon substituents on nitrogen._
21. Relating to the second joint of a bird's wing.
   - Simple: Having to do with the second joint of a bird's wing.
   - _The anatomist labeled the secondary segment of the wing skeleton._
   - _Muscles controlling the secondary joint allow fine adjustments in flight._

## Noun

4. A school providing education for students roughly between 11 and 18 years of age.
   - Simple: A school for students between about 11 and 18 years old.
   - _He taught for thirty years at a rural secondary._
   - _The new secondary opened with room for a thousand students._
6. Something of lesser importance than the main or primary thing.
   - Simple: Something that is less important than the main thing.
   - _In planning the trip, sightseeing was the priority and shopping a mere secondary._
   - _Every other concern became a secondary once the deadline loomed._
7. Ellipsis of secondary colour. *(UK)* — Ellipsis of secondary colour.
   - Simple: Short for secondary colour. It means a color made by mixing two main colors.
   - _Artists often dull a secondary by adding a touch of its complement._
   - _Purple is the secondary you get from red and blue._
11. A person who holds a subordinate or auxiliary position; a deputy or delegate.
   - Simple: A person who works under someone else as a helper or deputy.
   - _The cathedral employed a secondary to assist the senior clergy._
   - _Each officer trained a secondary to take over in an emergency._
12. An inductive coil or loop powered magnetically by a primary coil in a transformer or similar device.
   - Simple: The coil in a transformer that gets its power from another coil through magnetism.
   - _Engineers wound the secondary with more turns to step up the voltage._
   - _A short circuit in the secondary can damage the whole transformer._
13. An issue of additional stock by a corporation whose shares are already publicly traded.
   - Simple: When a company already on the stock market sells new shares to raise more money.
   - _The airline announced a secondary to fund its expansion into new markets._
   - _Analysts expected the secondary to dilute existing shareholders' stakes._
14. The defensive backs of a football team, considered as a unit. *(Canadian)*
   - Simple: In football, the group of defensive players who guard against passes far behind the front line.
   - _Injuries left the Roughriders' secondary thin heading into the Grey Cup._
   - _A veteran safety anchored the team's secondary all season._
19. The smaller member of a system of two orbiting bodies, circling the larger primary.
   - Simple: In astronomy, the smaller object that circles a larger one, like a moon around a planet.
   - _In the eclipsing binary, the secondary periodically dims the combined light._
   - _The secondary completes one orbit every few days around the massive primary._
20. A flight feather attached to the ulna, the forearm bone, of a bird's wing.
   - Simple: One of the flight feathers attached to the lower arm bone of a bird's wing.
   - _The molting goose had dropped a secondary, leaving a gap in its wing._
   - _Each secondary overlaps the next to form a smooth flight surface._
22. A great circle perpendicular to a primary circle and passing through its two poles.
   - Simple: In astronomy, an imaginary circle on the sky that crosses another main circle at a right angle.
   - _The astronomer measured the star's position along a secondary drawn through the zenith._
   - _Hour circles are secondaries passing through the celestial poles._
23. The second stage of a multistage thermonuclear weapon, which generates a fusion explosion when imploded by the primary's fission blast, and which in some very large weapons in turn implodes a fusion tertiary.
   - Simple: In a hydrogen bomb, the second part that explodes by fusion after the first part sets it off.
   - _The weapon's secondary delivered the bulk of its multi-megaton yield._
   - _Radiation from the primary compresses the secondary to fusion conditions._
24. A radar return produced when an aircraft's transponder replies to an interrogation signal, carrying encoded identity and situational data beyond what a primary return provides.
   - Simple: In radar, the reply sent back by special equipment on a plane, giving extra details like its identity.
   - _The display tagged each secondary with the aircraft's call sign and altitude._
   - _Air traffic control relies on the secondary to identify planes beyond visual range._

## Origin

From Middle English secundarie, from Latin secundārius ("of the second class or quality"), formed from secundus (the source of English second) plus the suffix -ārius; it is equivalent to second + -ary, and compares with French secondaire, Italian secondario, and Spanish secundario.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/secondary (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).