Meaning & use
secondary
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Less important than something else, or supporting the main thing.
Grammar: Often before a noun: a secondary concern.
Patterns
- of secondary importance
- secondary to something
Price is secondary to safety when buying a car seat.
His secondary job as a tutor brings in extra money.
Comfort was a secondary concern for the hikers.
adjectivebefore a nountechnical
Coming after or resulting from something first, such as a second illness or a later stage.
Grammar: Often used in medicine and science: a secondary infection.
Patterns
- a secondary infection
- secondary effect
The patient developed a secondary infection after surgery.
Doctors watched for secondary effects of the medicine.
The earthquake caused a secondary fire in the warehouse.
adjectivebefore a noun
Relating to education for pupils between roughly eleven and eighteen, after primary school.
Grammar: Used in: secondary school, secondary education.
Patterns
- secondary school
- secondary education
She teaches math at a secondary school.
Secondary education is free in this region.
The secondary curriculum includes science and languages.
Common combinations
- secondary school
- My brother starts secondary school next autumn.
- secondary source
- A textbook is a secondary source, not an eyewitness account.
- secondary importance
- Appearance is of secondary importance in this job.
- secondary colour
- Green is a secondary color made from blue and yellow.
- secondary effect
- Drowsiness is a secondary effect of the medicine.
Synonyms and how they differ
- minor
- Minor means small in importance or size, while secondary means ranking below something specific.
- subordinate
- Subordinate suggests formal lower rank under another, as in a subordinate clause.
- supplementary
- Supplementary means added to something already complete, not simply lower in rank.
- auxiliary
- Auxiliary describes a helper or backup, as in an auxiliary generator.
Opposites
Word family
- secondarily adverb
- in second place or as a consequence
- second adjective
- coming after the first
- primary adjective
- first or most important
- tertiary adjective
- third in order, as in tertiary education
Commonly confused: secondary or secondhand?
secondary vs secondhand
Secondhand means previously owned by someone else, not less important.
Practice
The editor said style was ___ to accuracy in news writing.
Choose one answer.
Secondary to means less important than. Primary, central and leading would make style more important, which reverses the meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “secondary”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.