Meaning & use
secondary industry
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Meaning
nouncountable or uncountable
The part of a country's economy that makes goods from raw materials, especially in factories.
Grammar: Can be countable ('a secondary industry') or uncountable ('investment in secondary industry').
Patterns
- work in secondary industry
- the secondary industry sector
Car manufacturing is a classic example of secondary industry.
The country shifted from farming to secondary industry in the 20th century.
Many jobs in secondary industry have been replaced by machines.
Word forms
| plural | secondary industries |
|---|
Common combinations
- the secondary industry sector
- The secondary industry sector grew by 4% last year.
- develop secondary industry
- The government wants to develop secondary industry to create jobs.
- decline of secondary industry
- The decline of secondary industry hit the town hard.
- heavy secondary industry
- Heavy secondary industry, such as steel-making, uses a lot of energy.
Synonyms and how they differ
- manufacturing
- This is a more common everyday word for the same idea, but it focuses on the process rather than the economic sector.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: secondary industry or primary industry?
secondary industry vs primary industry
Primary industry takes raw materials from nature (farming, mining); secondary industry turns them into finished goods.
Practice
Which of these is an example of secondary industry?
Choose one answer.
Making cars is manufacturing, which is secondary industry. Fishing is primary, banking and teaching are tertiary (services).
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “secondary industry”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.