TERTIARY PERIOD • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tertiary period

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/tˈərʃəri pˈɪriəd/ Listen

adjective

Tertiary adj.

Being of the third formation, order, or rank; third; as, a tertiary use of a word.

(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.

(Geol.) Later than, or subsequent to, the Secondary.

(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.

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Etymology of 'Tertiary period'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tertiary period" Quotes from Famous Books

... changes, there being a definite relationship between the chemical constitution of the petroleum and the age of the strata in which it is found. It is almost certain that in the most recent alluvial formations no oil is ever found, its latest appearance being in the rocks of the tertiary period, the place where the solid paraffin is almost exclusively met with; thus helping to show that the latter has been formed from the decomposition of the oil, and is not a residue remaining after the oil has been distilled off. To this conclusion ...

— Scientific American Supplement, No. 829, November 21, 1891 • Various