Crossword clues for quaternary
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Quaternary \Qua*ter"na*ry\, a. [L. quaternarius consisting of four each, containing four, fr. quaterni four each, fr. quattuor four: cf. F. quaternaire. See Four.]
Consisting of four; by fours, or in sets of four.
(Geol.) Later than, or subsequent to, the Tertiary; Post-tertiary; as, the Quaternary age, or Age of man.
Quaternary \Qua*ter"na*ry\, n. [L. numerus quaternarius: cf. F. quaternaire.]
The number four.
--Boyle.(Geol.) The Quaternary age, era, or formation. See the Chart of Geology.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., "consisting of four parts," from Latin quaternarius "of four each, containing four," from quaterni "four each, by fours," from quater "four times," related to quattuor "four" (see four). Also as a noun, "the number four" (mid-15c.), from Latin quaternarius.\n
\nIn geological sense, attested from 1843 in English, proposed 1829 by French geologist Jules Pierre François Stanislas Desnoyers (1800-1887) as name for "the fourth great epoch of geological time," but because it comprises only the age of man, and the other epochs are many hundred times longer, not all accepted it.
Wiktionary
a. 1 (label en proscribed) Of fourth rank or order. 2 Of a mathematical expression containing e.g. x4.
WordNet
adj. consisting of or especially arranged in sets of four; "quaternate leaves"; "a quaternary compound" [syn: quaternate]
coming next after the third and just before the fifth in position or time or degree or magnitude; "the quaternary period of geologic time extends from the end of the tertiary period to the present" [syn: fourth, 4th]
Wikipedia
The Quaternary Period is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene (2.588 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago) and the Holocene (11.7 thousand years ago to today). The informal term "Late Quaternary" refers to the past 0.5–1.0 million years.
The Quaternary period is typically defined by the cyclic growth and decay of continental ice sheets driven by Milankovitch cycles and the associated climate and environmental changes that occurred.
Quaternary is an EP by the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. It was released in 1994 on Elektra.
Quaternary may refer to:
- Quaternary (or quartary), the fourth geologic time period
- The fourth Ordinal number (linguistics), coming after Tertiary
-
Quaternary numeral system (base-4) in mathematics
- Quaternary counting system in linguistics
- Quaternary Communications Encoding, a method using 4 physical signal levels, such as 2B1Q encoding.
- Quaternary (EP), an extended play recording by Mötley Crüe
- Quaternary structure in structural biology
-
Quaternary compound, in which an atom, usually carbon, is attached to four other atoms
- Quaternary ammonium cation
- Quaternary sector of the economy, which encompasses knowledge-based services
- Quaternary stress, a proposed degree of stress in linguistics
Usage examples of "quaternary".
This learned man, who holds such a high place in the scientific world, holds that the soil of Moulin-Quignon does not belong to the diluvium but to a much less ancient stratum, and, in accordance with Cuvier in this respect, he would by no means admit that the human species was contemporary with the animals of the Quaternary epoch.
The existence of men in the Quaternary period became, therefore, more positive every day.
I may say face to face with, a specimen of the human race actually belonging to the Quaternary period!
I have the honor on this auspicious occasion to present to you a man of the Quaternary period of our globe.
I am well acquainted with all these matters, and know, also, that Cuvier and Blumenbach fully recognized in these bones the undeniable remains of mammoths of the Quaternary period.
I saw the antehistorical times revivified, when the Tertiary and Quaternary periods passed before me, was now realized!
Ternary and rejects and removes that somber and superfluous part of the quaternary, the source of obscure shadows.
In the Houses of the Spring Quaternary they had fixed Mercury, and then combined him with old King Saturn, lead.
In the fourth House, first of the Summer Quaternary, he had been sweated, and labor induced.
As an intelligence of the quaternary class, you cannot possibly make an interruption of sufficient importance to interfere with a statement emanating from an intelligence of my class.
During the Quaternary, these down-warping areas were folded and uplifted by neotectonic movements of the limestone plates.
Tertiary and the Quaternary period, but that during this succession of ages its ancestors were not confined to some given, limited area of the globe.
Primary and secondary fell out of use altogether, while quaternary was discarded by some but kept by others.
In some books, too, you will find the tertiary and quaternary taken out and replaced by periods of different lengths called the Palaeogene and Neogene.
I let the mind roam away back over the vast geologic spaces, and sometimes fancy I see a dim image of him stalking across the terrace epoch of the quaternary period.