second
- noun
- /ˈsɛkənd/
- Formal
- The second indicates influence, which is not necessarily officially sanctioned, although it too is regulated through social norms.
Examples
-
The second is engaging each of them in a continuous improvement process of his or her own.
Academic text (2003) -
Do I hear a second on that?
-
The second is that little or no contribution to the debate itself is offered by the machine.
Academic text (2017) -
The second urges us to break the myth and to follow the demand of conscience.
Academic text (1991) -
Before we proceed with the discussion, may I have a second to this proposal?
-
The chairperson asked if anyone would like to second the motion to increase the budget.
-
During the meeting, she made a new suggestion and quickly received a second from a fellow member.
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 for a formal show of support comes from the idea of being the 'second' person to back a motion, so a second is someone who comes after the proposer to agree and allow the matter to move forward.