Tertiary

How to spell tertiary

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce tertiary

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tertiary mean?

1. adjectiveThird in order, level, or importance, coming after primary and secondary.

Tertiary in a sentence

• After school many students go on to tertiary education at a university.

• The patient was transferred to a tertiary care hospital for specialist treatment.

Where does tertiary come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin tertiarius, which meant 'containing a third part' or 'relating to a third'. It was built on tertius, the ordinary Latin word for 'third', which in turn traces back to tres, meaning 'three'. English adopted tertiary in the early 1600s, at first in technical and scientific contexts where things were ranked in a sequence after primary and secondary. The same tertius root sits behind other English words such as 'tertian' (a fever recurring every third day) and the musical interval the 'tierce', and it is a close cousin of 'trio' and 'triple'. The spelling trap lies in the middle: the '-tiary' ending is pronounced with a soft 'shuh' sound, which tempts writers to drop a letter or muddle the vowels, yet it faithfully preserves the Latin terti- before the familiar -ary suffix.

How the word is built

• terti- (from Latin tertius: third)
• -ary (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')