second
Forms
- Plural
- seconds
Definitions
1.Number-two; following after the first one with nothing between them. The ordinal number corresponding to the cardinal number two.
- You take the first one, and I'll have the second.
- He became the second player to hit 50000 runs for his county.
- The second volume in "The Lord of the Rings" series is called "The Two Towers".
2.Next to the first in value, power, excellence, dignity, or rank; secondary; subordinate; inferior.
- His job is second priority, because his family is the most important thing in his life.
- May the day when we become the second people upon earth […] be the day of our utter extirpation!
3.Being of the same kind as one that has preceded; another.
- Residents of Texas prepared for Hurricane Harvey, which would in some ways turn out to become the second Hurricane Katrina.
1.After the first occurrence but before the third.
- He is batting second today.
2.After the first; at the second rank.
- Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system.
1.Something that is number two in a series.
2.Something that is next in rank, quality, precedence, position, status, or authority.
3.The place that is next below or after first in a race or contest.
Frequency
Overall
Very common· #400
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Very common
- Academic
- Common
- Literature
- Uncommon
Related words
Etymology
From Middle English secunde, second, secound, secund, borrowed from Old French second, seond, from Latin secundus (“following, next in order”), from root of sequor (“to follow”), from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“to follow”).
Doublet of secund and secundo.