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# secondary

«secondary» in Mova's school dictionary: **second in importance or less important** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

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

### meaning for a pupil

1) Secondary means second in importance or less important. [tree →](https://md.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://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#m2)

3) Secondary means coming after or caused by something else. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#m3)

4) (art) Secondary colours are made by mixing two primary colours. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/#m4)

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

### In the corpora

- [SATs results mainly help show how schools are doing; in most of England, secondary school places do not depend on them.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/53-writing-assessment-and-the-year-6-panic/8/)
- [Then his new secondary school asked about the suspension, because it was on his record.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/375-what-fights-cost-at-school/3/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «secondary» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/secondary/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.