How to spell secondary

hear itsec·ond·ar·y/'sɛkən,dɛri/adjectivePrefixes and work

What it means: A term for something that is second in rank.

In a sentence: The secondary playground is where we play games after the lunch bell rings.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as secoundary or secondry.

Same family: secondary-education, secondary-school, secondary-coil, secondary-source, secondary-effect. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Secondary comes from Latin 'secundarius', meaning 'following' or 'next in order.' In physics, the 'secondary' coil is literally the one where current comes second, after it is induced by the primary coil.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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Words like this

itinerary · summary · questionnaire · embarrass · liaison · electrician · conscience · transaction

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