tertiary

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: ter=tiar=y

CIDE DICTIONARY

tertiary, a. [L. tertiarius containing a third part, fr. tertius third: cf. F. tertiaire. See Tierce.].

•  Being of the third formation, order, or rank; third; as, a tertiary use of a word.  Trench.  [1913 Webster]
•  Possessing some quality in the third degree; having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or radicals; as, a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt. Cf. Primary, and Secondary.  [1913 Webster]
•  Later than, or subsequent to, the Secondary.  [1913 Webster]
•  Growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial; -- said of quills.  [1913 Webster]

Tertiary age. (Geol.) See under Age, 8. -- Tertiary color, a color produced by the mixture of two secondaries. “The so-called tertiary colors are citrine, russet, and olive.” Fairholt. -- Tertiary period. (Geol.) (a) The first period of the age of mammals, or of the Cenozoic era. (b) The rock formation of that period; -- called also Tertiary formation. See the Chart of Geology. -- Tertiary syphilis (Med.), the third and last stage of syphilis, in which it invades the bones and internal organs.

tertiary, n. 

•  A member of the Third Order in any monastic system; as, the Franciscan tertiaries; the Dominican tertiaries; the Carmelite tertiaries. See Third Order, under Third.  Addis & Arnold.  [1913 Webster]
•  The Tertiary era, period, or formation.  [1913 Webster]
•  One of the quill feathers which are borne upon the basal joint of the wing of a bird. See Illust. of Bird.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

tertiary, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 third in order or rank etc.
2 (Tertiary) Geol. of or relating to the first period in the Cenozoic era with evidence of the development of mammals and flowering plants (cf. PALAEOCENE, EOCENE, OLIGOCENE, MIOCENE, PLIOCENE).

Idiom

tertiary education education, esp. in a college or university, that follows secondary education.

Usage

Cf. Appendix II.
--n.
1 Geol. this period or system.
2 a member of the third order of a monastic body.

Etymology

L tertiarius f. tertius third

THESAURUS

tertiary

Maxwell triangle, Munsell scale, chromatic circle, chromatic spectrum, chromaticity diagram, color circle, color cycle, color index, color mixture curve, color solid, color spectrum, color system, color triangle, complementary color, covert, demitint, feather, feathers, full color, fundamental colors, hackle, half tint, halftone, hue cycle, mail, metamer, monochrome, plumage, primary, primary color, pure color, secondary, secondary color, solar spectrum, spectral color, spectrum, spectrum color, speculum, tertiary color, third

ROGET THESAURUS

tertiary

Triality

N triality, trinity, triunity, three, triad, triplet, trey, trio, ternion, leash, shamrock, tierce, spike-team, trefoil, triangle, trident, triennium, trigon, trinomial, trionym, triplopia, tripod, trireme, triseme, triskele, triskelion, trisula, third power, cube, cube root, three, triform, trinal, trinomial, tertiary, ternary, triune, triarch, triadie, triple, tri-, tris-, tria juncta in uno.

Oldness

N oldness, age, antiquity, cobwebs of antiquity, maturity, decline, decay, senility, seniority, eldership, primogeniture, archaism, thing of the past, relic of the past, megatherium, Sanskrit, tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law, old, ancient, antique, of long standing, time-honored, venerable, elder, eldest, firstborn, prime, primitive, primeval, primigenous, paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic, primordial, primordinate, aboriginal, diluvian, antediluvian, protohistoric, prehistoric, antebellum, colonial, precolumbian, patriarchal, preadamite, paleocrystic, fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane, archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter, immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contr, inveterate, rooted, antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete, out of date, out of fashion, out of it, stale, old-fashioned, behind the age, old-world, exploded, gone out, gone by, passe, run out, senile, time worn, crumbling, secondhand, old as the hills, old as Methuselah, old as Adam, old as history, Archeozoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, Paleogene, Neocene, Quaternary, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent, since the world was made, since the year one, since the days of Methuselah, vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.