''second'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260821235354-00-⌔

second - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Adjective

second (not comparable)

• Number- two; following after the first one with nothing between them. The ordinal number corresponding to the cardinal number two.
  • ✤ He lives on Second Street.
  • ✤ The second volume in “The Lord of the Rings” series is called “The Two Towers”.
  • ✤ He became the second player to hit 50000 runs for his county.
  • ✤ You take the first one, and I’ll have the second.
  • ✤ The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. […] The second note, the high alarum, not so familiar and always important since it indicates the paramount sin in Man’s private calendar, took most of them by surprise although they had been well prepared.¹
  • ✤ Malay is the lingua franca of several Southeast Asia countries and has been simplified by its use as a second language by non-native speakers.
    For example, the Malay plural is formed by repeating a word twice – buku means book and buku-buku means books.²
  • ✤ Consequently, in the initial position the white pieces and pawns are placed on the first and second ranks; the black pieces and pawns on the eighth and seventh ranks.³
• 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!⁴
• 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.
  • ✤ A Daniel ſtill ſay I, a ſecond Daniel, […]⁵

Adverb

second (not comparable)

• (with superlative) After the first; at the second rank.
  • ✤ Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system.
• After the first occurrence but before the third.
  • ✤ He is batting second today.

Noun

second (plural seconds)

• Something that is number two in a series.
• Something that is next in rank, quality, precedence, position, status, or authority.
• The place that is next below or after first in a race or contest.
• (usually in the plural) A manufactured item that, though still usable, fails to meet quality control standards.
  • ✤ They were discounted because they contained blemishes, nicks or were otherwise factory seconds.
• (usually in the plural) An additional helping of food.
  • ✤ That was good barbecue. I hope I can get seconds.
• A chance or attempt to achieve what should have been done the first time, usually indicating success this time around. (See second-guess.)
  • ✤ The policeman smiled, his eyes twinkling. “Now if you’ll follow me, I’ll escort you to the Victoria.”
    “Oh, there’s no need of that. If you’ll just point me in the right direction…”
    That’s what got you in trouble the first time around. You don’t need a second.⁶
  • ✤ Smoky Joe ran against a Houston horse named Cherokee Chief.
    “Don’t hit him,” Jeanine said to the jockey. “Maybe once. But you don’t get a second.”⁷
  • ✤ I’ll have one chance to show them that’s no longer true. One chance… and if I stumble, I’ll not get a second.⁸
• (music) The interval between two adjacent notes in a diatonic scale (either or both of them may be raised or lowered from the basic scale via any type of accidental).
• The second gear of an engine.
• (baseball) Second base.
• The agent of a party to an honour dispute whose role was to try to resolve the dispute or to make the necessary arrangements for a duel.
  • ✤ Since he [i.e., Abraham Lincoln] had very long arms, he chose cavalry broadswords and took lessons in sword fighting from a West Point graduate; and, on the appointed day, he and[James] Shields met on a sandbar in the Mississippi River, prepared to fight to the death; but, at the last minute, their seconds interrupted and stopped the duel.⁹
  • ✤ Joint enterprise law dates back to at least the 16th century. It was later developed to deter duelling by making seconds and doctors liable for murder.¹⁰
• A Cub Scout appointed to assist a sixer.
  • ✤ Synonym: seconder
  • ✤ Many packs have a sixer’s council where the sixers, and sometimes the seconds, meet with Akela and some of the other leaders.¹¹
• (informal) A second-class honours degree.
  • ✤ [Stephen Hawking] […] would go to Cambridge, he said, if they gave him a first, and stay at Oxford if they gave him a second. He got a first.¹²

Verb

second (third-person singular simple present seconds, present participle seconding, simple past and past participle seconded)

• (transitive) To agree as a second person to (a proposal), usually to reach a necessary quorum of two. (See etymology 3 for translations.)
  • ✤ I second the motion.
  • ✤ Though seconding (or fifthing) the praise for “BoJack Horseman” and “In Treatment,” I think I’ll use the majority of my space to discuss “You’re the Worst.”¹³
• To follow in the next place; to succeed.
  • ✤ In the method of nature, a low valley is immediately seconded with an ambitious hill.¹⁴
  • ✤ Sin is usually seconded with sin.¹⁵
• (climbing) To climb after a lead climber.

Noun

second (plural seconds)

🖼️ ➺

• A unit of time historically and commonly defined as a sixtieth of a minute which the International System of Units more precisely defines as the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of radiation corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine levels of caesium -133 in a ground state at a temperature of absolute zero and at rest.
  • ✤ Alternative forms: s (SI symbol), sec (non-SI symbol)
  • ✤ Holonyms: decasecond < minute < hectosecond < kilosecond < hour < day < week < megasecond < fortnight < month < year < gigasecond < century < kiloannum, kiloyear, millennium < terasecond < mega-annum, megayear < petasecond < giga-annum, gigayear < exasecond < zettasecond < yottasecond < ronnasecond < quettasecond
  • ✤ Meronyms: quectosecond < rontosecond < yoctosecond < zeptosecond < attosecond < femtosecond < picosecond < nanosecond < microsecond < millisecond < centisecond < decisecond
  • ✤ For this reason, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that spinach be cooked at 160º for 15 seconds, which kills potentially fatal bacteria.¹⁶
• A unit of angle equal to one-sixtieth of a minute of arc or one part in 3600 of a degree.
  • ✤ Synonyms: arcsecond, second of arc
• (informal) A short, indeterminate amount of time.
  • ✤ Synonyms: instant, jiffy, sec; see also Thesaurus: moment
  • ✤ I’ll be there in a second.
  • ✤ Exposure of aluminum to the air causes a near instantaneous oxide. So rapid is the oxidation that it is safe to say you never see aluminum that has no oxide on its surface… The initial exposure of aluminum, regardless of alloy, will form a thin oxide film on the surface the second it is exposed.¹⁷

Verb

second (third-person singular simple present seconds, present participle seconding, simple past and past participle seconded)

• (transitive, UK) To transfer temporarily to alternative employment.
  • ✤ Synonym: detail
  • ✤ The army officer was seconded while he held civil office.
  • ✤ Things changed quickly from 1892 when Sam Fay was seconded from the L.S.W.R. as General Manager & Secretary.¹⁸
  • ✤ Daniel had still been surprised, however, to find the lab area deserted, all the scientists apparently seconded by Cleomides’s military friends.¹⁹
  • ✤ As The Signpost reported, all was not well with Wikilambda. Ten days prior to the article, a group of Google employees seconded to Abstract Wikipedia had released a damning report on Meta-Wiki, the site where projects of the Wikimedia Foundation are documented.²⁰
• (transitive) To assist or support; to back.
  • ✤ Wee haue Supplyes, to ſecond our Attempt: […]²¹
  • ✤ In human works, tho’ labour’d on with pain,/A thouſand movements ſcarce one purpoſe gain;/In God’s, one ſingle can its End produce,/Yet ſerves to ſecond too ſome other Uſe.²²
• (transitive) To agree as a second person to (a proposal), usually to reach a necessary quorum of two. (This may come from etymology 1 above.)
  • ✤ I second the motion.
• (transitive, music) To accompany by singing as the second performer.

Noun

second (plural seconds)

• One who supports another in a contest or combat, such as a dueller’s assistant.
  • ✤ The dogs however parted, and after a little handling by their seconds immediately returned to the charge²³
  • ✤ They find ways to take advice from their seconds or they arrange the schedule against you as they did to me in the finals of the 1962 World Tournament²⁴
  • ✤ Vaguely reminiscent of the use of “seconds” among duelists, this provision required that the two hostile nations stop threatening each other and, instead, to let two appointed countries (their “seconds”) try and solve their difficulties²⁵
  • ✤ *Theodore’s practice is described as a model for the housemasters and their seconds *²⁶
• One who supports or seconds a motion, or the act itself, as required in certain meetings to pass judgement etc.
  • ✤ If we want the motion to pass, we will need a second.
• (obsolete) Aid; assistance; help.
  • ✤ Give second, and my love/Is everlasting thine.²⁷

Etymology 1

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. Displaced native twoth and partially displaced native other (from Old English ōþer (“other; next; second”)).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA: /ˈsɛk.ənd/, enPR: sĕʹkənd
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Audio (US): 🔊
• (General American) IPA: /ˈsɛk.ənt/
• (General American) IPA: /ˈsɛk.ən/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈsɛk.ənd/
  • Audio (UK); “a second”: 🔊
• (Canada) IPA: /ˈsɛk.ɪnd/
• Rhymes: -ɛkənd
• Hyphenation: sec‧ond

Etymology 2

From Middle English secunde, seconde, borrowed from Old French seconde, from Medieval Latin secunda, short for secunda pars minuta (“second diminished part (of the hour)”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĕʹkənd, IPA: /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/
• (US) IPA: /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/, /ˈsɛk.(ə)nt/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɛkənd
• Hyphenation: sec‧ond

Etymology 3

From Middle French seconder, from Latin secundō (“assist, make favorable”).

Pronunciation

Transfer temporarily

• enPR: səkŏnd’, (UK) IPA: /səˈkɒnd/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊
• (General American) IPA: /səˈkɑnd/
• Rhymes: (UK) -ɒnd, (General American) -ɑnd
• Hyphenation: sec‧ond

Assist, Agree

• enPR: sĕʹkənd, IPA: /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/
• (General American) IPA: /ˈsɛk.(ə)nd/, /ˈsɛk.(ə)nt/
• Audio (US): 🔊
• Rhymes: -ɛkənd
• Hyphenation: sec‧ond

Printed 2026-08-21.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249: ↩

2. 2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN ‎${}^{[2]}$, archived from the original on 22 March 2022: ↩

3. 2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE ‎${}^{[3]}$, archived from the original on 16 March 2025, page 21: ↩

4. 1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Conversation I. Richard I and the Abbot of Boxley.”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, volume I, London: […] Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 6: ↩

5. c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 180, column 2: ↩

6. 2003, Sheila Ryan Wallace, The Sea Captain and His Ladies ‎${}^{[4]}$, page 22: ↩

7. 2009, Paulette Jiles, Stormy Weather ‎${}^{[5]}$, page 37: ↩

8. 2011, Karen Miller, The Innocent Mage ‎${}^{[6]}$: ↩

9. 1936, Dale Carnegie, ‘If You Want to Gather Honey, Don’t Kick Over the Beehive’ (part 1, chapter 1), in How to Win Friends and Influence People: ↩

10. 2016 October 31, Owen Bowcott, “Appeal court upholds ‘joint enterprise’ guilty verdicts”, in The Guardian ‎${}^{[7]}$: ↩

11. 1995, Boy Scouts of Canada. National Council, The Cub Book: ↩

12. 2004, William H. Cropper, Great Physicists, page 454: ↩

13. 2017, Critics Pick the TV Shows That Get Mental Health Right — IndieWire Survey ‎${}^{[8]}$: ↩

14. 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC,: ↩

15. 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume, London: ↩

16. 2021 July 1, Gregory McNamee, “Does spinach make you strong? Ask Popeye – and science”, in CNN ‎${}^{[9]}$, archived from the original on 11 June 2025: ↩

17. 2020, L. William Zahner, “Corrosion Characteristics”, in Aluminum Surfaces: a Guide to Alloys, Finishes, Fabrication and Maintenance in Architecture and Art, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 287: ↩

18. 1961 October, “Talking of Trains: Last of the M.S.W.J.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 585–586: ↩

19. 1998, Paul Leonard, chapter 9, in Dreamstone Moon: ↩

20. 2026, Michael Falk, “Wikilambda the ultimate: the Wikimedia foundation’s search for the perfect language”, in AI & Society: Knowledge, Culture and Communication, →DOI: ↩

21. c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 91, column 1: ↩

22. 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 6, line 61: ↩

23. 1820, Pierce Egan, Sporting Anecdotes ‎${}^{[10]}$, page 414: ↩

24. 1973, Frank Brady, Bobby Fischer: Profile of a Prodigy ‎${}^{[11]}$, page 201: ↩

25. 1992, Mark W. Janis, International Courts for the Twenty-First Century ‎${}^{[12]}$, page 10: ↩

26. 2009, David Brakke, Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early… ‎${}^{[13]}$: ↩

27. 1608, J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess: ↩