secondary

comparative more secondary · superlative most secondary

1. not comparableusuallyNext in order to the first or primary; of second place in origin, rank, etc.
2. not comparableusuallyOriginating from a deputy or delegated person or body.

   the work of secondary hands

3. not comparableusuallychemistryDerived from a parent compound by replacement of two atoms of hydrogen by organic radicals.
4. not comparableusuallygeographyProduced by alteration or deposition subsequent to the formation of the original rock mass.
5. not comparableusuallygeographyDeveloped by pressure or other causes.

   secondary cleavage

6. not comparableusuallyanatomyPertaining to the second joint of the wing of a bird.
7. not comparableusuallymedicineDependent or consequent upon another disease, or occurring in the second stage of a disease.

   the secondary symptoms of syphilis

   1 more example

   Bright's disease is often secondary to scarlet fever.

   Antonyms: idiopathic

8. not comparableusuallyOf less than primary importance.

   a secondary issue

   1 more example

   the problem of sexual equality became even more secondary than before in the eyes of the kibbutz and of its women members.

   1992, Deborah Bernstein, Pioneers and Homemakers: Jewish Women in Pre-state Israel, page 227

   Synonyms: associate

9. not comparableusuallyeducationRelated to secondary education, i.e. schooling between the ages of (approximately) 11 and 18.
10. not comparableusuallybusinessRelating to the manufacture of goods from raw materials.
11. not comparableusuallyFormed by mixing primary colors.

    Yellow is a secondary light color, though a primary CMYK color.

12. not comparableusuallybiologyRepresenting a reversion to an ancestral state.

    With the exception of a secondary loss in Dimecoenia, larvae of Ephydrini have prominent, ventral prolegs that bear crochets.

    2016 May 27, Wayne M. Matthis, Luciane Marinoni, “Revision of Ephydrini Zetterstedt (Diptera: Ephydridae) from the Americas south of the United States”, in Zootaxa, volume 4116, number 1, →DOI

plural secondaries

1. biologyAny flight feather attached to the ulna (forearm) of a bird.
2. aeronauticsA radar return generated by the response of an aircraft's transponder to an interrogation signal broadcast by a radar installation, containing additional encoded identification and situational data not available from a simple primary return.
3. governmentThe second stage of a multistage thermonuclear weapon, which generates a fusion explosion when imploded as an indirect result of the fission explosion of the primary, and which, in a few extremely large weapons, itself implodes a fusion tertiary.
4. businessAn act of issuing more stock by an already publicly traded corporation.
5. CanadianAmerican footballThe defensive backs.
6. businessAn inductive coil or loop that is magnetically powered by a primary in a transformer or similar.
7. One who occupies a subordinate or auxiliary place; a delegate deputy.

   the secondary, or undersheriff, of the city of London

   1 more example

   Old Escalus […] is thy secondary.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

8. astronomyA secondary circle.
9. astronomyA satellite.
10. educationA secondary school.

    There are four secondaries in this district, each with several thousand pupils.

11. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of secondary colour.
12. Anything secondary or of lesser importance.