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Tertiary   /tˈərʃəri/  /tˈərʃiˌɛri/   Listen
adjective
Tertiary  adj.  
1.
Being of the third formation, order, or rank; third; as, a tertiary use of a word.
2.
(Chem.) Possessing some quality in the third degree; having been subjected to the substitution of three atoms or radicals; as, a tertiary alcohol, amine, or salt. Cf. Primary, and Secondary.
3.
(Geol.) Later than, or subsequent to, the Secondary.
4.
(Zool.) Growing on the innermost joint of a bird's wing; tertial; said of quills.
Tertiary age. (Geol.) See under Age, 8.
Tertiary color, a color produced by the mixture of two secondaries. "The so-called tertiary colors are citrine, russet, and olive."
Tertiary period. (Geol.)
(a)
The first period of the age of mammals, or of the Cenozoic era.
(b)
The rock formation of that period; called also Tertiary formation. See the Chart of Geology.
Tertiary syphilis (Med.), the third and last stage of syphilis, in which it invades the bones and internal organs.



noun
Tertiary  n.  (pl. tertiaries)  
1.
(R. C. Ch.) A member of the Third Order in any monastic system; as, the Franciscan tertiaries; the Dominican tertiaries; the Carmelite tertiaries. See Third Order, under Third.
2.
(Geol.) The Tertiary era, period, or formation.
3.
(Zool.) One of the quill feathers which are borne upon the basal joint of the wing of a bird.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Tertiary" Quotes from Famous Books



... evidence that these gigantic quadrupeds, more different from those of the present day than the oldest of the Tertiary quadrupeds of Europe, lived whilst the sea was peopled with most of its present inhabitants. These animals migrated on land, since submerged, near Behring's Strait, from Siberia into North America, and ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Volume 19 - Travel and Adventure • Various

... skulls of extinct as well as living wolves and jackals, and owing on the other hand to the great dissimilarity of the skulls of the several breeds of the domestic dogs. It seems, however, that remains have been found in the {16} later tertiary deposits more like those of a large dog than of a wolf, which favours the belief of De Blainville that our dogs are the descendants of a single extinct species. On the other hand, some authors go so far as to assert that every chief domestic breed must have had its wild prototype. This latter view ...
— The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Vol. I. • Charles Darwin

... The tertiary unit is the state, which is a federation of the counties and cities forming some one of the historic divisions of the United States. The legislature would as now be composed of two chambers, one made up of representatives of the primary units, holding office for a brief term, and a second representing ...
— Towards the Great Peace • Ralph Adams Cram

... out, you must trace the geology of Hampshire, and indeed, of East Dorset. You must try to form a conception of how the land was shaped in miocene times, before that tremendous upheaval which reared the chalk cliffs at Freshwater upright, lifting the tertiary beds upon their northern slopes. You must ask- -Was there not land to the south of the Isle of Wight in those ages, and for ages after; and what was its extent and shape? You must ask—When was the gap between the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Purbeck sawn through, leaving ...
— Scientific Essays and Lectures • Charles Kingsley

... pointed out by Cuvier, offer numerical relations which Deshayes and Lyell have made the object of researches by which they have been conducted to important results, especially as regards the numerous and well-preserved fossils of the Tertiary formation. Agassiz, who has examined 1,700 species of fossil fishes, and who estimates at 8,000 the number of living species which have been described, or which are preserved in our collections, affirms that, with the exception of one small fossil fish peculiar to the argillaceous ...
— The World's Greatest Books - Volume 15 - Science • Various


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