tertiary
ter·ti·a·ry/ˈtɜː.ʃi.ə.ɹiː/adjective, noun
tertiary is spelled T-E-R-T-I-A-R-Y: 8 letters and 4 syllables (ter·ti·a·ry). It appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, tertiary means “Of third rank or order; subsequent” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in tertiary?
| Letters | 8: T-E-R-T-I-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: ter·ti·a·ry |
| In writing | 3.4 times per million words; the 14,307th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is tertiary?
Tertiary appears 3.4 times per million words in written English, the 14,307th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce tertiary?
- UK /ˈtɜː.ʃi.ə.ɹiː/
- UK /ˈtɜː.ʃə.ɹiː/
- UK /ˈtɜːʃ.ɹiː/
Tertiary has 4 syllables, split ter·ti·a·ry in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-tertiary.ogg, En-au-tertiary.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of tertiary
- tertiaries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tertiary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of third rank or order; subsequent.
An untaught peasant beheld the elements around him and was acquainted with their practical uses. The most learned philosopher knew little more. He had partially unveiled the face of Nature, but her immortal lineaments were still a wonder an
- 2
Possessing some quality in the third degree; especially having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or radicals.
a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt
- 3
Of quills: growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial.
noun
- 1
Any item considered to be of third order.
- 2
A tertiary colour.
- 3
Something from the Tertiary Period (the former term for the geologic period from 65 million to 2.58 million years ago).
- 4
A tertiary feather; a tertial.
- 5
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
A gigaton-scale weapon would of necessity be a three-stage design (incorporating a fusion tertiary - likely with its own massive fission tamper - in addition to the fission primary and fission-jacketed fusion secondary), as a reasonably-siz
- 6
A member of a Roman Catholic third order; a layperson who participates in activities similar to those engaged in by men and women who take religious vows (respectively the first and second orders), and who may wear some elements of an order's habit such as a scapular.
Immediately after her arrival in Ferrara, while she was still striving to secure the foundation of her exemplary reformed community of Dominican tertiaries, [Lucia] Brocadelli also renewed her attempts to enhance [Girolamo] Savonarola's sai
adjective
- 1
Of or pertaining to the first part of the Cenozoic era when modern flora and mammals appeared.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tertiary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense of third rank or order:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does tertiary come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).