Secondary

How to spell secondary

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce secondary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does secondary mean?

1. adjectiveComing after, or less important than, something that is primary or first.
2. adjectiveRelating to the stage of schooling for students roughly between the ages of eleven and eighteen.

Secondary in a sentence

• The report listed the main causes first and the secondary factors below.

• She teaches geography at a large secondary school in the city.

• Keeping the receipts is a secondary concern compared with paying the rent.

• Most pupils move from primary to secondary education at age eleven.

Where does secondary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin secundarius, meaning 'belonging to the second class' or 'of inferior rank', which was formed from secundus, 'following' or 'next'. That root in turn came from the verb sequi, 'to follow', so something secondary was literally what came after the first thing. English borrowed it through Old French during the late 1300s, at first to mean 'second in order or importance'. Over time it spread into many specialised uses, from secondary schools to secondary colours and secondary sources. The same sequi root lives on in familiar relatives such as 'sequence', 'consequence', and 'second' itself, which all share the idea of one thing following another.

How the word is built

• second (from secundus: following, next)
• -ary (relating to)