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# secondary

adjective (secondary); noun (a secondary — rare, UK informal for secondary school)

«secondary» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. Secondary means second in importance or less important. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#m1)
2. Secondary school (UK, Australia, NZ, Ireland) is the school children go to after primary school, about age 11–18. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#m2)
3. Secondary means coming after or caused by something else. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#m3)
4. (art) Secondary colours are made by mixing two primary colours. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#m4)

### In the lessons

In school life: «primary and secondary school». In art: orange, green and purple are secondary colours. In history, secondary sources are written later about an event. Phrases: «secondary school», «secondary colour», «secondary source», «of secondary importance».

### Examples

- My big sister goes to secondary school. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#x1)
- Orange is a secondary colour made from red and yellow. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#x2)
- A history book is a secondary source. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#x3)
- Winning is secondary; having fun matters most. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#x4)
- The fire caused secondary damage from the water. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#x5)
- Green is a secondary colour: blue + yellow. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#x6)

### Note

In the USA the usual word is «high school» or «middle school». Primary = first, secondary = second, tertiary = third.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «secondary» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«secondary» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/secondary.html) on Mova free.