second
- adjective
- /ˈsɛkənd/
- She finished the race in second place, just behind the winner.
- second grade
- second time
- second year
My start date is the second quarter of next year.
- My start date is the second quarter of next year.
- Today's guest, this is his second time being here.
- This is like my second baby and they're twins.
- So in this case, a Dorian, it's the second mode of G major.
- I doubt you've heard of the second one, but maybe you have.
- Teacher turns on the TV and then the second tower goes down.
- And then you have the second second people.
Examples
-
My start date is the second quarter of next year.
-
We will start now with our second set of panelists.
-
By the way, when will your second book be released?
-
So why is it this second most important part?
-
So now we go up to the second floor.
-
Applications approved by this committee move on to the second stage of the approval process.
Academic text (2008) -
These are first, second, and third grade readers.
-
Today's guest, this is his second time being here.
-
It is the second door on the left.
-
You don't get a second chance.
Synonyms
Coming immediately after this one in time or order
Next after the first in position, time, or order
Someone or something that is second in order
Next in order or time, often about to be mentioned
Antonyms
Idioms
- Informal
A person who has a less important role and helps someone more important
Compounds
A child of your parent's first cousin who shares your great-grandparents but not your grandparents
A player who stands near second base and catches or throws the ball to get runners out
A junior officer with the lowest rank in the Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps
- Specialized
Words that refer to the person or people you speak to, for example 'you'
A meeting of Catholic Church leaders from 1962 to 1965 that changed worship and encouraged talks with other Christian churches
A measure of speed that shows how many kilometers something moves in one second
- Specialized
Energy naturally spreads from hot places to cold ones, increasing disorder
A woman who cares for someone like a mother, often with or instead of their own mother
- Archaic
A period in old age when mental decline makes a person behave like a young child
- Specialized
An extra second added to clocks so they match how fast the Earth turns
- Specialized
A unit that shows how many small pieces of information called bits are sent every second
- Informal
A belief that food dropped on the floor for less than two seconds is still safe to eat
- Specialized
A measure of how many billion math calculations a computer does each second
- Specialized
A rule that you can extend any straight line without end in both directions
- Archaic
A unit equal to one thousand cycles per second, now called kilohertz
- Specialized
The distance light travels in one second in empty space, about 300,000 kilometers
- Archaic
A unit equal to one million cycles per second for measuring radio frequencies
- Specialized
A measure of how fast a computer does one million math calculations each second
- Specialized
A unit for measuring how fast a computer processor runs, equal to one million instructions per second
- Specialized
A rule that a force changes an object's motion more when the force is bigger or the object is lighter
A person who belongs to a Christian group that believes Christ will return soon
Surface Forms
Etymology
Second comes from the Latin word secundus, which means 'following' or 'next', the same idea you see in words like sequel. So second means 'next after the first' in order or rank.