quaternary

1. 1.

   consisting of or especially arranged in sets of four

   “quaternate leaves”

   “a quaternary compound”

   Synonymsquaternate

   Similarmultiple
2. 2.

   coming next after the third and just before the fifth in position or time or degree or magnitude

   “the quaternary period of geologic time extends from the end of the tertiary period to the present”

   Synonymsfourth4th

   Similarordinal

Other forms of quaternary

plural

quaternaries·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about quaternary

What does quaternary mean?

quaternary means "last 2 million years". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in quaternary?

quaternary has 4 syllables: qua-ter-nar-y. The stress falls on "qua". In IPA it is /ˈkwɑtɚˌnɛɹi/.

What is another word for quaternary?

Close synonyms include Quaternary period, Age of Man, four, 4, IV. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is quaternary a common word?

quaternary is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with quaternary?

41 words rhyme with quaternary. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.