Meaning & use

ancillary

adjective·Advanced

Providing necessary support to the main activities or operations of an organization, without being central to it.

See it in a sentence

The hospital's ancillary staff, including cleaners and porters, keep the wards running smoothly.

Selling branded merchandise became an ancillary source of income for the band.

A note on using this word

Common in business and medical contexts to describe supporting roles or services, as in "ancillary services."

Words with a similar meaning

auxiliarysupplementarysubsidiary

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

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