Tertiary
['tɜːʃ(ə)rɪ] or ['tɝʃɪ'ɛri]
Definition
(a.) Being of the third formation, order, or rank; third; as, a tertiary use of a word.
(a.) 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.
(a.) Later than, or subsequent to, the Secondary.
(a.) Growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial; -- said of quills.
(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.
(n.) The Tertiary era, period, or formation.
(n.) One of the quill feathers which are borne upon the basal joint of the wing of a bird. See Illust. of Bird.
Checked by Ellen
Definition
adj. of the third degree order or formation: pertaining to the series of sedimentary rocks or strata lying above the chalk and other secondary strata and abounding in organic remains—the Cainozoic: (ornith.) tertial.—n. one who or that which is tertiary.—n.pl. Ter′tiaries a class in the R.C. Church who without entering into the seclusion of a monastery aspire to practise in ordinary life all the substantial obligations of the scheme of virtue laid down in the Gospel.
Typed by Betsy